BAGHDAD, Nov 27: The threat of a delay to Iraq's Jan 30 elections demanded by several top parties receded on Saturday after the electoral commission, the government, the United States and Shia religious figures favoured sticking to the schedule.
But bloodshed on the ground did nothing to alleviate the security concerns of the proponents of a delay, as smouldering violence continued to plague reconstruction efforts in Fallujah and several people were killed elsewhere.
"Postponing the elections is out of the question," electoral commission chairman Abdel Hussein al Hindawi told reporters after examining a request submitted a day earlier by 17 organizations, including the party of interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.
"As far as we are concerned, the elections will be held at the date scheduled by the fundamental law," the commission chairman said. "In theory, the elections cannot be postponed, bar a political disaster."
On Friday, several leading political parties had agreed on a document demanding the Jan 30 election be postponed by six months in a bid to allow security conditions to improve.
"Unrest and terrorist acts as well as insufficient preparations at the administrative, technical and political levels necessitate the date be reconsidered," the document read.
However, senior statesman Adnan Pachachi, who led the drive to delay the country's first free multi-party polls in half a century, stressed that the movements demanding a postponement would not necessarily boycott the vote if their request was rejected.
He also vowed that further delay requests would be put forward, but did not specify which parties had decided to take part in the ballot and which ones were pulling out.
A government spokesman said later that the interim administration - which was handpicked by the former US administration - remained determined to hold the polls on time.
"The government is determined to hold elections at the scheduled date and is working with the various political forces to that purpose," Thaer al Naqib told reporters.
The Shia community also came out strongly against delaying the vote. "The Marajiy (Shia leaders in Najaf) think a postponement of the elections would be unacceptable," said a spokesman in the holy city.
He said he was speaking in the name of all four leaders of the Marjaiya, which includes the influential Grand Ayatollah Ali al Sistani, the highest Shia authority in Iraq.
Further indicating that the elections remained on target, the top US official in Iraq, Ambassador John Negroponte, said he was in favour of respecting the country's interim constitution, which says clearly that under no circumstances can the elections be held after Jan 31.
"We believe there will be adequate security for these elections to be held on Jan 30," he said, in a bid to alleviate fears that militants could prevent citizens from taking part in the election.
He was speaking during a visit to the city of Fallujah.
On Thursday, two US marines were killed during searches of the devastated city, the first casualties in Fallujah since the end of major combat there more than a week ago.
OPERATION NEAR BAGHDAD: The occupation forces raided guerrilla enclaves south of Baghdad on Thursday night.
In Latifiyah, US-led troops carried out raids all night, a day after reclaiming control of the streets.
A marine spokesman said nine people had been detained in ongoing raids, carried out by some 200 US and Iraqi troops in Latifiyah and involving some 400 soldiers in the nearby hotspot of Mahmudiyah.
In further unrest on Saturday, a car bomb exploded on the dangerous road to the Baghdad airport, targeting an armoured vehicle generally used to transport VIPs. There were no reports of any casualties and no details immediately available on who might have been inside the truck.
Another US soldier was killed on Saturday when a roadside bomb hit his vehicle in the restive town of Dhuluiyah, north of Baghdad.
Three bodyguards for the governor of Diyala province were killed in clashes with guerrillas who attacked a National Guard checkpoint in the city of Baquba, north of Baghdad.
A soldier from the National Guard and a member of the Iraqi Communist Party were also gunned down in two separate incidents overnight in Baquba. -AFP
