Posted on 12/29/2005 10:43:55 AM PST by High Cotton
A top U.N. official yesterday declared Iraq's recent parliamentary elections legitimate, even as the country's election commission pledged to intensify its review for fraud and ballot-box stuffing. Craig Jenness said his U.N. election team had determined the Dec. 15 voting to be fair and open. "Turnout was high and the day was largely peaceful; all communities participated," Mr. Jenness, a Canadian authority on elections, told reporters in Baghdad, adding that he saw no reason for new balloting to be held. "The United Nations is of the view that these elections were transparent and credible," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
Now, what'll "Mother Sheehan" think of THIS?
I suspect the process was "credible" although the UN Seal of Approval doesn't add to that credibility in my opinion.
Hopefully, this will prevent me from reading about Jiminy "Appease Prize" Carter's opinion...
I don't give a rat's ass what a Canadian thinks about the elections in Iraq. The UN needs to go.
Igualamente.
Hmmmm. could be an important analysis IF the U.N. were credible.. its not..
Even most Canadians aren't aware that if a nation is holding its first elections as an emerging democracy it's a fair bet that Elections Canada helped pull them off. We've been doing this for years as our voting system is pinheaded simple (simple procedures, paper ballots, no Rube Goldberg-esque voting machines, not tied to any one political entity). Iraq was no exception, but of course our weak knee Liberal government kept quiet lest they be accused of "helping the Americans in Iraq.
As an aside, former Ontario Premier Bob Rae (who has been remarkably non-partisan since leaving politics, especially for a lifelong democratic socialist) was a key advisor to the Iraqi group that wrote the constituion, specifically as it applied to the division of powers between the central government and the regions.
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