BAGHDAD, Oct 17: Comments by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have vexed Iraqi electoral officials who struggled Monday to produce an official tally a day after she suggested Iraq’s historic constitution had been approved.

In London, Rice told reporters Sunday that the draft charter for Iraq following the ouster of Saddam Hussein had “probably passed”, based on an “assessment of the people on the ground”.

She later adopted a more neutral position of wait-and-see.

News reports quoting local officials in four majority Sunni Arab provinces fuelled speculation that the constitution was a likely winner, but clear-headed officials in Baghdad stressed the final count was not in.

The constitution could be defeated if two-thirds of voters in three of Iraq’s 18 provinces reject it.

On Monday, Abdul Hussein al-Hindawi, a senior director of the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, told AFP he had been surprised by Rice’s forecast, adding: “As far as I know, she’s not a member of the electoral commission.”

“We are trying to remain cool. Our credibility depends on it,” he said. “Our work must be respectable, transparent and credible.”

Another election officer, Aida Salah, added: “We trust in the ballot boxes.” “If it’s no, it’s no. If it’s yes, it’s yes.”

She politely declined to comment directly on Rice’s remarks, but warned that a growing dust storm would delay results arriving from the northern city of Mosul which had emerged as a crucial voting centre, and delay the final count.

Late Sunday, the top United Nations electoral official, Carina Perelli said: “Until now, unless Mrs Rice has better information than the commission, there is no way to know the turnout figure and the result. I don’t know where she got her information from.”

Hindawi said that regional electoral officials who had violated a signed pledge not to reveal results would face sanctions, but noted that all political parties had been allowed to place observers in voting stations as long as it did not disrupt the counting.

Finally, the reaction of commission chairman Izadin al-Mohammady left no doubt as to the commission’s position.

“Secretary Rice does not work for the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq,” he said.

“Information that does not come from the IECI is just speculation.”—AFP