Grand Ayatollah Calls for Iraq Elections [View All]

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Ruh roh!

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031114/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_shiites&cid=540&ncid=1473

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqis are becoming suspicious of coalition forces because no elections have been held since the fall of Saddam Hussein, a senior Shiite Muslim cleric warned Friday.

Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Taqi al-Modaresi said the March invasion of Iraq was supposed to promote democracy. But "seven months have passed and there hasn't been one serious election," al-Modaresi said in a statement from his office in the southern holy city of Karbala.

Many Shiite clerics have been calling for nationwide elections to choose delegates to a convention to draft a new constitution. Iraq's majority Shiites are eager to wield power after years of oppression during the rule of former President Saddam Hussein, a Sunni Muslim.

U.S. officials have objected to such a vote for fear it would drag out the process of drawing up a constitution, in turn delaying the transfer of power to a democratic leadership — an urgent goal for Washington with coalition forces increasingly under attack.

"Coalition forces have chosen the Governing Council, distributed ministries the same wrong way and did not hold elections for the provincial councils. They (coalition forces) chose them randomly and for this reason many Iraqi are suspicious about the intentions of these forces," al-Modaresi said. snip

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