UNAMI ELECTIONS PREPARATIONS

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SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/17/2018
TAGS: PGOV PREL IZ
SUBJECT: UNAMI ELECTIONS PREPARATIONS

Classified By: Acting Deputy Political Counselor Elisa Catalano for Rea
sons 1.4(b) and (d).


1. (C) Summary: On March 16, UNAMI election advisors
Sandra Mitchell and Richard Gee apprised representatives of
the diplomatic community of the status of UNAMI's elections
assistance programs. Sandra Mitchell broke down the
assistance into two tracks -- political and technical. On
the political front, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) is on
its fourth draft of an election law. She said the PMO's two
objectives are holding provincial elections in 2008 and
moving from a closed-list to an open-list system. The PMO
has requested research on methods to ensure female
representation on the provincial councils. The new draft
will also address internally displaced persons (IDPs) voting.
The PMO plans to finalize the draft and submit it to the
Council of Representatives (CoR) as early as next week.
Mitchell stated the PMO and the CoR understand that an
election law must be passed no later than early May to hold
provincial elections in 2008. On the technical side, the
Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) submitted a
budget of USD 415 million. Gee pointed out that the CoR
needed to act quickly to approve the budget so that IHEC
could begin procurement procedures. UNAMI is vetting the
remaining candidates for eight Governorate Electoral Office
directors and will submit those names to the CoR around March

25. Gee also mentioned IHEC received over 130,000
applications for voter registration staff positions. UNAMI's
hard-driving approach is positioning the GOI to reach its
provincial elections in 2008 goal. End Summary.


2. (C) On March 16, UNAMI election advisors Sandra Mitchell
and Richard Gee apprised representatives of the diplomatic
community of the status of UNAMI's elections assistance
programs. Mitchell described their approach as focusing on
two tracks -- political and technical. On the political
side, UNAMI is assisting the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) in
drafting election legislation. (Note: It has already reached
out to the USAID drafting team arriving this week for
information on different methods to ensure female
representation on provincial councils. End Note.) The
PMO's two goals are to hold provincial elections in 2008 and
to move from a closed-list to an open-list system. Because
of this, the PMO realizes that district-based voting would
not be possible in this election because of the complexities
involved. The GOI will not change district boundaries for
the same reason. The PMO is considering the possibility of
limiting the term of the provincial councils to two years for
this election cycle only, so that a district-based election
system can be created for future provincial councils, which
would then serve four-year terms.


3. (C) Mitchell stated the PMO wanted to get away from the
Saddam-era voting method of voters selecting a number of
candidates equal to the number of provincial seats, so the
new law may limit the voter to selecting one candidate only.
This has the potential to reduce the chance of minority
parties winning seats on any council. Mitchell has mentioned
in the past the possibility of reserving seats for minority
candidates, and this may be included in the PMO's final
draft. As for female representation, the PMO is reviewing
options which include reserved seats and re-ordered lists.
The re-ordered list system, used in the Balkans and Jordan,
removes a percentage of male candidates who won seats (in
Iraq's case, probably 25%) and replaces them with female
candidates. This could be controversial, as women who win a
few hundred votes could be replacing men who win thousands of
votes. The other sensitive issue is IDPs voting. The PMO
draft will have IDPs voting at special centers in their place
of displacement for councils in their place of origin. The
PMO is still discussing the types of identity documents that
would be acceptable to prove place of origin. There has been
no discussion of refugee voting. The final draft is
scheduled to be delivered to the CoR as early as next week.
Both the PMO and the CoR understand an election law must be
passed in early May to hold elections in 2008.


4. (C) Technical preparations have focused on IHEC, which
has issued regulations for codes of conduct and technical
procedures. They include: 1) code of conduct for election
boards; 2) internal rules of procedure; 3) complaint
procedures; and 4) election observer procedures. The
judiciary has already set up an election complaints appeal
panel. In addition, it is working closely with the Ministry
of Migration to update the IDP data base. The MOM is keen to
assist because it hopes to use the updated voter registry to
clean up its own IDP lists. IHEC has also submitted a budget
request, including USD 415 million for voter registration,
provincial elections, regions formation referenda (if
necessary) and constitutional referenda (if necessary). IHEC
commissioners told UNAMI they are receiving positive signals
from the CoR concerning approval of the budget. However, the
Council of Ministers has already questioned the need for that

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large a budget, and has asked the IHEC to further justify the
request. UN Special Representative DeMistura intends to
advocate on behalf of the IHEC's budget request, stressing
that at least half the funds -- USD 225 million -- is
necessary immediately for voter registration activities,
including a tender requesting printing and data entry
services for the voter registry that went out last week. Gee
stated the CoR must act quickly because IHEC must make
financial commitments to vendors in the next three to four
weeks, and delays in allocating a budget will negatively
impact the preparations timeline (Note: The IHEC Finance
Committee has already denied tendering an award to support
voter registration data entry activities due to lack of a
budget. End Note)..


5. (C) Gee described UNAMI assistance as transitioning from
capacity building to preparation for elections. UNAMI
received over 1,100 applications for the eight remaining
Governorate Electoral Office (GEO) director positions, of
which a little over 800 met the minimum qualifications. An
international team based in Amman vetted the list and the
leading candidates were invited to Baghdad for interviews by
another international panel at the UNAMI compound. UNAMI
will submit to the CoR eight to ten candidates for each
position. The CoR will select five names from each list to
submit to the IHEC, which will chose a director for each of
the eight remaining GEOs. UNAMI has completed the Baghdad
and Ninewa lists, and will now begin the Wasit list. The
process will be completed by March 25. UNAMI is also
assisting IHEC to develop the logistics for transporting
voter registry materials to the 550 voter registration sites.
Gee happily noted that IHEC received over 130,000
applications for the 6,500 open voter registration staff
positions. UNAMI's next challenge is to work with the Public
Outreach section of IHEC to improve its performance.


6. (C) Comment: Earlier this year, UNAMI was reluctant to
push the Iraqis on holding provincial elections in 2008. It
believed the IHEC was ill-prepared for elections and the
capacity-building assistance UNAMI was providing would take
time to be effective. Now that momentum has built up for
2008 provincial elections, UNAMI has redoubled its efforts,
assisting the PMO to draft a well-thought out election law
and pushing IHEC to make necessary decisions on budget and
procedures to facilitate the election process. UNAMI's
hard-driving approach is positioning the GOI to reach its
provincial elections in 2008 goal. End Comment.
CROCKER