What was that, the Yanks were going to bring freedom and democracy to Iraq? Yeah right.
US drops plan to elect Iraqi advisory council](Latest news & breaking headlines | The Times and The Sunday Times)
THE US-led administration in Iraq has scrapped plans for elections for a provisional Iraqi government and will instead appoint a council of “technocrats”.
**In a move that will be seen as a setback for the prospects of democracy in the occupied country, the newly renamed Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) has dropped plans for a broad conference of politicians in July that would have elected members of the provisional government. **
Instead it will appoint within six weeks a 25 to 30-strong political council that will provide advice on all policy issues, as well as debate, ratify and put to referendum a new constitution under which full elections will be held in one to two years. The council members are expected to be ministers-in-waiting for the new government.
**The decision to appoint rather than elect the interim government was made after consultations with Iraqi leaders. However, it will inevitably be viewed with disappointment by the majority of Iraqis, who are increasingly frustrated at the delays in handing over power to an Iraqi government.
They are also increasingly concerned that the coalition occupation could continue for longer than suggested.
The announcement will also be seen by critics of the invasion as evidence that the coalition authorities are finding it far more difficult to make Iraq democratic than was hoped. **
The administration believes that it is critical to get the first step of the political process right, as it will determine the process of the political development, and if mistakes are made it will be very difficult to put them right later.
There has been a growing suspicion that the leaders so far consulted by the coalition are not fully representative of the broad base of moderate opinion in the country.
Most of the political parties that are well-established represent the more extreme or divisive ethnic or religious views, and the coalition wants to give time for a more mature political culture to develop after a generation of oppression.
**There is also concern that Islamic groups are winning far more influence than is merited in a generally secular society. An official of the Coalition Provisional Authority said: “A lot of people came to us and said, ‘For God’s sake, don’t have a national conference; don’t go and do something that is going to be divisive at this stage, let’s have a bunch of technocrats.’ ” ** (So now the Amercians will decide who the Iraqis should or should not vote for)
Another senior official, who made the announcement on the basis of anonymity, said: “This council will emerge as the face of the Iraqi people in its interactions with the coalition provisional authority.”
He said that the interim administration would not be a sovereign government and that “ultimate authority” would remain with the CPA until it handed over power to a democratically elected government.
The CPA has been consulting with a seven-strong leadership council made up largely of former exiles, but it now wants to broaden the regular consultation process to include a wider range of views. “What we are hoping is that we are going to see a consensus on a range of representation. This is why we are looking at six weeks, not six days,” the official said.
The officials said they hoped that the political council would reflect Iraq’s diverse ethnic and religious groups but added that they did not believe that meant setting quotas.
In addition to the council, a “constitutional convention” will be set in place to start drafting the new constitution, which would then be put forward to the people in a referendum, followed by national elections for a full democractic government. There is no timetable for the national elections, but they are expected to be within one to two years.