OTTAWA, Dec. 20 -- Canadian authorities said Monday that security conditions in Iraq are inadequate to offer to send observers to monitor parliamentary elections scheduled for Jan. 30. Instead, Canada will head a small group of international experts to evaluate the election, with most of its work conducted outside Iraq.
The conclusion came after a two-day meeting in which elections experts heard from both U.S. military and Iraqi officials about preparations for balloting. The decision was another blow to some authorities' confidence that unimpeded elections can be held in Iraq, which is still torn by violence 20 months after Saddam Hussein was toppled.
Canada regularly volunteers for international elections monitoring -- it is sending hundreds of observers to monitor Ukraine's presidential Dec. 26 runoff -- and Prime Minister Paul Martin had sought to find a role in Iraq's election to show his cooperation with the United States. But after closed-door sessions with representatives of about a dozen countries and international monitoring groups, officials here decided "to minimize the number of people, to reduce to as low as possible the number of people situated in Iraq," said Jean-Pierre Kingsley, Canada's chief electoral officer.
He said a core group of roughly six to 12 experts would be based outside of Iraq, and "very little groups" would be sent into the country "so it can be easier to protect them." They will try to evaluate the election process and preparation but will not monitor balloting, he said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14850-2004Dec20.html