Iraqi Experts Wanted for Election Probe

[Barrett808]

Iraqi Experts Wanted for Election Probe
By HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press Writer

NAJAF, Iraq - Iraq's leading Shiite Muslim cleric wants Iraqi experts — and not just those from the United Nations — to conclude that early elections are not feasible before he will drop his opposition to the U.S. political blueprint for Iraq, an aide said Thursday.

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani also is adamant that the U.S.-led occupation must meet a July 1 deadline to hand over sovereignty to an Iraqi government, according to the aide, Mohammed al-Yehia al-Mawsawi.

If U.N. and Iraqi experts conclude elections could not be held before July 1, al-Sistani wants them to come up with other ways to make the transitional legislature as representative of the Iraqi people as possible, al-Mawsawi said.

...

Al-Mawsawi launched a scathing attack on the U.S.-sponsored blueprint, which the Iraqi Governing Council accepted Nov. 15. He said the formula for choosing legislators by caucus would perpetuate "the illegitimacy" of Iraqi institutions.

"His eminence al-Sistani viewed the agreement as extremely dangerous," al-Mawsawi said. "The agreement's main danger is in that it does not confer legitimacy on the transitional period. It takes us from one quagmire of illegitimacy to another."

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