Allawi Again Rejects Calls to Delay Vote

BAGHDAD —  With less than four weeks before elections, officials were scrambling Wednesday to keep the Jan. 30 vote on track amid growing divisions, ongoing violence and renewed calls for a delay.

At a news conference in the capital, interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi reiterated his position that the nationwide elections not be postponed.

“The government is committed to holding elections as scheduled,” Allawi said. “We are quite aware of the concerns of the people regarding the security situation. But we will not allow the terrorists to derail the process.”

In recent days, the prime minister has found himself caught between members of his Cabinet, who favor a delay, and the U.S., which is pushing to stay on schedule.

On Monday, President Bush called Allawi to discuss Iraq’s problems, though White House aides said that the pair did not discuss the timing of the vote.

President Ghazi Ajil Yawer broke ranks the next day, suggesting that the United Nations review whether Iraq was ready for a Jan. 30 election. Yawer was the latest high-profile Iraqi leader to raise the possibility of a delay.

U.S. military leaders, meanwhile, were attempting to reassure anxious citizens that Iraqi security forces, along with American troops, will be capable of keeping the peace on election day.

“We expect security to be better by the 30th of January,” said Army Maj. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, commander of the 1st Cavalry Division, which oversees 35,000 troops in Baghdad.

Chiarelli said ongoing operations to capture insurgents, better intelligence from Iraqi informants and increased training of Iraqi police forces would reduce violence in the capital, which has been rocked by car bombs and assassinations in recent days, including the killing of Baghdad’s governor Tuesday.

In his comments, Allawi acknowledged growing divisions and anxieties within the country over the upcoming vote.

“I understand that there are sectors of the people who are reluctant, who have some fears,” he said. “We need to address these fears.”

Across Iraq, preparations and enthusiasm for the elections vary dramatically.

In the northern city of Mosul, for example, many residents blame the impending vote for a recent upsurge in violence and say they’d prefer to skip the balloting.

“People here were too afraid to even register to vote,” Mosul attorney Mohammed Aqrawi, 38, said. “They feel the danger would lift if the elections were not held.”

Election preparations in Mosul all but ceased last week after leaders of the independent electoral board quit, citing death threats. On Tuesday, a top local official of the Iraqi Islamic Party was assassinated.

In Tikrit, north of Baghdad, military officials met town leaders Wednesday at city hall to assure them that security measures would safeguard citizens on election day.

Near Baqubah, however, the head of local election security was gunned down along with his driver.

South of the capital, in Najaf, which has been much quieter in recent months, election excitement dominates the landscape.

Shiite Muslim candidates eagerly await the balloting, hanging posters, debating issues and preparing polling stations.

“The preparations are going smoothly, and everyone is very keen to see the election,” said Wail Waily, head of the electoral commission in Najaf.

Such different experiences only heighten the debate, raising questions about whether Iraqis will accept the results of the election when they still can’t agree on whether the vote should even take place as scheduled.

“Holding an election is one thing,” one election official in Baghdad said. “Getting people to accept the outcome is another.”

Allawi predicted that the election would soothe the nation, not exacerbate tensions.

“I personally believe that the unity of the country will be enhanced, will be strengthened by the process of an election,” he said.

Though leading Sunni Muslim political parties have withdrawn from the ballot and Sunni clerics are urging followers not to vote, Allawi said it was too soon to talk about whether postelection modifications would be needed to ensure that all Iraqis are represented in the new assembly. Some have proposed guaranteeing Sunnis a certain number of seats or delaying elections in Sunni-dominated cities.

“We don’t want to talk about postelection,” Allawi said. “We want to talk about people participating in the election.”

But he left the door open to compromise.

“This is a process,” he said. “It’s not the end of the process on the 30th of January.”

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Times staff writer Louise Roug in Baqubah, special correspondent Roaa Ahmed in Mosul and a special correspondent in Najaf contributed to this report.