Thursday, December 29, 2005
Iraq Vote "Do-Over" Unlikely
The top United Nations elections official in Iraq has endorsed the conduct of the Dec. 15 parliamentary election.
This will disappoint the Sunnis, who are clamoring for a new election, alleging widespread fraud. Some elements of the Sunni insurgency are threatening increased violence if no new balloting is conducted.
"In Samarra, about 65 miles north of Baghdad, a few thousand demonstrators gathered to condemn the elections. Some carried photos of Sunni leaders or of Hussein carrying a rifle, and they waved banners that read: "Forgery in the election is treason.""If they don't respond to our demands, we shall show them things they have never seen before," Ahmad Mahdi Dhaye, a cleric and member of the Association of Muslim Scholars, a leading Sunni religious group, told the crowd."
U.N. Official Endorses Iraq Vote
