An Iraqi man walks past a row of pro-constitution posters in central Baghdad yesterday. High turnout is expected at Iraq's constitutional referendum on October 15, a senior election official said on Sunday, although insurgents will likely attack on the day and voting will be difficult in several areas. - REUTERS
UNITED NATIONS (AP):
THE UNITED Nations has expressed its concern to the Iraqi government that last-minute changes to the country's electoral laws do not meet international standards, a U.N. spokesman said yesterday.
U.N. officials have been meeting with Iraqi authorities and are confident that Iraq will ultimately agree to sound electoral rules, spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. Sunni Arab leaders have threatened to boycott Iraq's October 15 vote on a new constitution because of new rules by the Shiite-led Parliament that make it nearly impossible for Sunnis to defeat the document at the polls.
"Ultimately, this will be a sovereign decision by the Iraqis and it's up to the Iraqi National Assembly to decide on the appropriate electoral framework," Dujarric said. "That being said, it is our duty in our role in Iraq to point out when the process does not meet international standards."
Dujarric said that as far as he knew, there had been no discussion between the United Nations and the Americans on the issue.
DISPUTE
The dispute came as officials began distributing the constitution to the public, less than two weeks before the vote. Some five million copies printed by the United Nations arrived in Iraq on Monday, and officials began passing the first ones out, said Laura Makeissi, a U.N. official in Baghdad.
A Sunni boycott of the Oct. 15 referendum would deeply undermine the legitimacy of a constitution that the United States had hoped would bring together the country's disparate factions and erode support among Iraq's Sunni Arab minority for the insurgency. Sunnis oppose the constitution, but U.S. officials are still trying to ensure they participate in the vote.
