Iraqi Elections

[Jon]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0, ... 26,00.html

Should they be postponed?

In my opinion they should be, untill at least proper security arrangements are made. A delay would be the sensible thing to do even if Blair, Allawi and Bush insist it would be a victory for the militants.

[Chappy]

To propose them in the first place is a joke.

[Tab]

I have put forward Tony Blair's Name for El Presidenty

[Guest]

My belief is that the Elections are some sort of cover-up attempt by the Coalition leaders (Blair and Bush), to hide the fact that civil war is going on inside Iraq. There is NO WAY an election will help the country yet, as they have not even got peace on the streets.

Also, the Iraqi people seem to be annoyed at the amount of involvement by the Coalition in the running of Government. I think it is all good that troops should be on the ground trying to get some sort of order, but the politicians from the UK, and US should p*ss off, and leave Iraq too it.

[T T Fresh]

so that 13 yrs from now they can be drawing up plans to bring in an exiled government from a neighbouring country into the lawless wasteland?

Iraq doesn't have the security infrastructure to avoid the country breaking up and being fought over by rival factions - Kurds in the North, Sunnis in the Triangle, Shias in the south, etc.

Also, without the conspicuous presence of a security force, boarders will become frontiers. And what of the oil reserves? How will ALL the Iraqi people get their share of revenues with no government to allocate them?

[Frank S.]

The other question I think would be: even if elections can be held, can the candidates be kept alive?
Also, it seems Iran is not participating in the meeting in Amman today of the 6 neighboring countries of Iraq, after king Abdullah (Jordan) accused Iran of sending large numbers of stealth voters into Iraq to tilt elections to the Shi'ia population.