Iraq Should Conduct Census Before Elections -Chalabi

[salin]

Iraq Should Conduct Census Before Elections -Chalabi

Nov. 29 — DUBAI (Reuters) - A member of Iraq's U.S.-backed Governing Council said on Saturday a census must precede any elections paving the way to Iraqi sovereignty and citizenship should be restored to Iraqis denaturalized by Saddam Hussein.

Ahmad Chalabi, whose Iraqi National Congress exile group advised the Bush administration before the war to topple Saddam and is a key voice on the council helping to run post-war Iraq, told Arabic television channel Al Jazeera: "Any real elections must be held on sound basis. There must be a census.

"Following the census, the elections can be held. This is a time-consuming process, and we cannot compress its stages randomly. We have to discuss this matter in a responsible manner. The census is necessary and takes a long time."

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Chalabi told Jazeera he supported a new law that would restore citizenship to millions of Iraqis denaturalized by the ousted Iraqi president.

He said all Iraqis should take part in the election, including Iraqis residing outside the country. "All of this can materialize while conducting a census," Chalabi added.

more: http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/reuters20031129_174.html

[UTUSN]

1. He Needs to Know What Number to Come Up With n/t

[IranianDemocrat]

2. Chalabi is scum, he definitely has something up his sleeve.

The bastard hyped the imminent threat so that he could gain power after America did his dirty work for him by taking out saddam.

[TolstoyAndy]

3. Iraq should send Chalabi to Jordan before election - Andy

So he can serve his jail term. The fact that he is even in this "governing" council tells us all we need to know about Operation Iraqi FreeDumb.

But UTUSN, I like your comment best. Without a census, how can they know what number plus 537 they need to fake?

[NNN0LHI]

4. Chalabi is worried Saddam will beat him in an election n/t

[jiacinto]

5. How are they supposed to make sure the election s are fair?

nt

[salin]

6. so we do this census... and include expatriots... and chalabi is in charge

of defining the parameters of such an exercise...

is this a stall tactic (to slow down bush's new 'timeline' for turning over power), or is it a tactic to do the chicago voting thing (where the graveyards turn out to vote)? Or a combination of both?