By P. Mitchell Prothero UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 (UPI) -- Iraqi demonstrators protesting a U.S. plan for regional caucuses should pause pending a U.N. determination that elections are impossible, an influential Shiite leader said Friday.
Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani Friday told a prayer group in the holy city of Najaf that the demonstrations, which have supported his call for direct elections, should pause while the United Nations determines if direct elections are feasible.
Shiites compose about 60 percent of Iraq's 25 million people and are expected to take much of the nation's political power under direct elections. Shiites were persecuted by Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated regime.
At present, the United States wants to transfer sovereignty from the U.S. Coalition Provisional Authority and U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council to a parliament through regional caucuses by June 30. U.S. officials say direct elections are beyond Iraq's current capabilities, but Sistani, whose credentials as a top leader of Shiite Islam leave him with massive influence among the majority of Iraqis, and others have criticized the plan because it does not call for a direct vote.
In recent statements, however, Adnan Pachachi, the current head of the Iraqi Governing Council, and IGC member Ahmed Chalabi have said though they support direct elections as well, they believe a compromise can be reached.
Sistani has also indicated he will accept a ruling by a special U.N. delegation that elections would be impossible before the deadline, though he has spurned U.S. offers to either meet or compromise on the issue.
The CPA says the current transfer of power will take place by June 30, following a series of regional caucuses where each of the 18 provinces would select representatives who would be vetted by a committee of Iraqis and Americans.
The U.S. authority in Iraq says the lack of accurate voter rolls and poor security and infrastructure make a fair and accurate election impossible in Iraq, but both Chalabi and Pachachi said they believed elections could be held by the June deadline.
"I believe elections are possible," Chalabi told a forum in Washington Friday. "The United Nations sent an election team back in August. (It) sent a report back and although I haven't seen the document, but my understanding that (it) said that elections would be possible in 6 months."
As for Sistani's role, Chalabi pointed out the elderly cleric has consistently argued for a democratic secular society rather than an Islamic state.
"Sistani is not for an Islamic state," he said. "He is not for an Islamic republic. He is just for a government that respects that Islam is the religion of the majority of the Iraqi people."
"He has been a very positive force in Iraq," Chalabi said. "Sistani has repeatedly pointed out that he is actually a citizen of Iran, although he has lived in Iraq for 50 years and has no plans to run for office. In fact, he cannot even vote in an election."
