Iraq sets election date

Iraqi authorities set January 30 as the date for the nation’s first election since the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship and pledged that voting would take place throughout the country, despite rising violence and calls by Sunni clerics for a boycott.

Farid Ayar, spokesman for the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, said voting would push ahead, even in areas still wracked by violence – including Fallujah, Mosul and other parts of the volatile Sunni Triangle.

The vote for the 275-member National Assembly is seen as a major step towards building democracy after years of Saddam’s tyranny.

But the violence, which has escalated this month with the US-led offensive against Fallujah, has raised fears voting will be nearly impossible in uprising-torn regions – or that Sunni Arabs, angry at the US-Iraqi crackdown, will reject the election.

If either takes place, it could undermine the vote’s legitimacy.

Ayar insisted that “no Iraqi province will be excluded because the law considers Iraq as one constituency, and therefore it is not legal to exclude any province”.

To bolster Iraq’s democracy, 19 creditor nations – including the United States, Japan, Russia and many in Europe – agreed yesterday to write off 80% of the nearly €34.2bn that Iraq owes them.

US and Iraqi troops have been clearing the last of the resistance from Fallujah, the main rebel bastion stormed on November 8 in the hope of breaking the back of the uprising before the election.

US secretary of state Colin Powell said he believed the battle of Fallujah did “serious damage” to the revolt, adding that “it remains to be seen how severe it was” and whether the guerrillas will be able “to regenerate”.

Meanwhile, in Fallujah, Marine Major Jim West said US troops had found nearly 20 “atrocity sites” where rebels imprisoned, tortured and murdered hostages. West said troops found rooms containing knives and black hoods, ”many of them blood-covered”.

The storming of Fallujah has heightened tensions throughout Sunni Arab areas, triggering clashes in the cities of Mosul, Beiji, Samarra, Ramadi and elsewhere.