United Nations Radio

Following complaints by some Iraqi groups about the December 15th elections, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has welcomed the decision by the International Mission for Iraqi Elections to establish a team of exports to conduct a follow up assessment to its interim report released two weeks ago.

The team will include two representatives from the League of Arab States. Mr. Annan says he strongly supports on-going efforts by the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq to investigate and audit all complaints received before certifying the results of the elections. He stresses that it is critical that those Iraqi groups who have complained about the conduct of the parliamentary elections are given a hearing.