Iraqi demonstrators seek early elections

TENS of thousands of Shi’ite Muslims marched through Baghdad yesterday to demand early elections, as Iraq’s US governor asked the United Nations to back his political plans for Iraq.

Paul Bremer and members of the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council met UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in New York to discuss a plan to hand power back to Iraqis by the end of June, before the American presidential election in November. The plan would put power in the hands of an appointed transitional government, while many Iraqis, especially majority Shi’ites, want direct elections now so they can choose who controls Iraq.

Washington, which defied UN allies in invading last year, hopes to persuade Annan to back its plan and help convince supporters of Iraq’s most revered Shi’ite cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, that his call for elections is premature.