IECI COMMISIONER COMMENTS ON LESSONS LEARNED FOR

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BAGHDAD 000852

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

C O R R E C T E D C O P Y (SUBJECT LINE)

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/13/2016
TAGS: PGOV PNAT KDEM IZ
SUBJECT: IECI COMMISIONER COMMENTS ON LESSONS LEARNED FOR
THE PROVINCIAL ELECTONS AND THE COMMISION'S FUTURE

REF: 05 BAGHDAD 5154

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Classified By: Political Counselor Robert S. Ford for
reasons 1.4(b) and (d).


1. (C) SUMMARY: Acting Chair of the Independent
Electoral Commission of Iraq (IECI) Hamdia Al-Hussaini,
met with PolOff 9 March to discuss recommendations from
the IMIE-sponsored after action conference in Madrid and
the future of the IECI. Recommendations from the Madrid
conference include items for consideration in a future
election law, ideas on how to improve IECI performance,
and voting process changes. Hamdia also expressed
concern that political parties will directly appoint
future Commissioners, eliminating the independence of any
future election commission. Hamdia became acting chair
after Chairman Izadin Al-Mohamady, stepped down in
February. END SUMMARY.
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LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE MADRID CONFERENCE
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2. (C) On 9 March, PolOff met with IECI Acting Chair
Hamdia Al-Hussaini to discuss her attendance
at a post-election conference in Madrid. The 27-29
February conference was sponsored by the International
Mission for Iraqi Elections (IMIE) and was the second of
three major after action events attended by IECI
Commissioners to discuss lessons learned from December's
Council of Representative elections. IMIE, an
independent and international elections monitoring group,
played a key role during the December elections (reftel).
Commissioner Hamdia said that the conference was very
productive and the IECI was praised for the overall
success of the elections under difficult circumstances.


3. (C) Hamdia said the focal point of the conference was
on lessons learned from the election. These lessons
included specific items which should be addressed in the
anticipated election law, the management of elections,
and internal IECI procedures and staffing.


A. Election Laws Changes. There was wide agreement
by conference attendees that the new election law should
include provisions to punish political parties or
individual candidates who violated the law or IECI
regulations during the campaign. During the December
election there were clear violations observed, but no way
to sanction the violators. Many, but not all, of the
participants also felt that the law should be written so
that it would allow selected re-balloting in areas where
high fraud rates were determined to exist. Hamdia said
that the attendees agreed that out-of-country voting rules
did not provide fair representation for Iraqis living
overseas.


B. IECI Improvements. The conference participants
cited IECI staffing shortfalls as a significant problem,
specifically, the lack of adequate legal staff to review
and handle complaints. The IECI was also criticized for
relying too heavily on television and the print media.
Hamdia said that conference attendees felt the IECI
commissioners should have had more direct contact with
the electorate and better interaction with the political
parties.


C. Process Improvements. Finally, Hamdia told
PolOff there was general agreement among conference
participants that the way the voter registration lists
were distributed was problematic in that the same list
went to multiple polling centers. This allowed a person
to show up at different centers and vote without the
ability to cross check to see if they had already voted
somewhere else. (Comment: the presence of ink on the tip
of voters' index fingers would presumably have prevented
this, but Hamdia was adamant this was a problem.) To
prevent this, she said, future registration lists must be
specific to each polling station. It was also suggested
by IMIE recommended that during future elections
political party representatives be given copies of the
tally sheets after the count at each center. This was
opposed by the IECI Commissioners, who pointed out that
most of the polling centers did not have copy machines
and any tally sheets given out could be modified by the
political parties to create mischief or claim fraud.

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COMMENTS ON THE DELAYED SEATING OF GOVERNMENT
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4. (C) Commissioner Hamdia said she was frustrated
with the political infighting and delay in the seating of
parliament. She said that the constitution and will of
the people were not being respected and that people were
fed up with political parties and politicians who were
only out for their own interests. She also stated her
belief that the delays in seating the government only
work to the insurgency's advantage and that the longer
the delay, the worse the security situation seems to
become.

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THE FUTURE OF THE IECI
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5. (C) According to Hamdia, Shia Coalition leader Hussein
al-Shahristani met with the IECI Commissioners several
weeks ago to address the Commissioners concerns about the
future of the IECI. During that meeting Shahristani told
the IECI Commissioners that an election law was drafted
but postponed to the new parliament for action, where he
promised it would be one of the first items of
legislation brought up for discussion.


6. (C) When asked her own views on the future of the
IECI, Commissioner Hamdia, said that she would like to
continue as an Election Commissioner, and hoped that an
extension of the current IECI would be enacted before
their mandate expires on May 15. She said she was
fearful that if this was not the case, when a new
commission was finally established the commissioners
would be appointed by the various political parties and
the Commission would lose its independence.

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COMMENT
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7. (C) Comment: Hamdia's expressions of concern over
politicization of the Commission are notable given her
own Shia Islamist links. Her sentiments also echo a
statement to PolOffs on March 8 by former IECI Chairman
Izadin Al-Mohammady. Mohammady told PolOffs that
when the IECI formally delivered the election results to
President Talabani, Talabani noted that his preference
would be to have a commission whose members were chosen
by political parties. With the conclusion of the Madrid
conference, the IECI Commissioners are now preparing for
their final after-action conference, an April 5-7 UN-
sponsored off-site in Cyprus. Barring the quick passage
of an election law allowing for either an extension of or
the continuation of the IECI, this conference, and the
final report written afterwards, will conclude the IECI's
work in its present form.
KHALILZAD