United Nations Radio

The United Nations Special Representative for Iraq has expressed concern about lack of clarity about the election law in Iraq with less than 100 days left before the election in the country.

Ad Melkert

Ad Melkert reiterates the United Nations support for election preparations and continued advice to the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) in all areas of its activities.

He says the UN mission in Iraq (UNAMI) fully respects last week's parliamentary process and the desire of members of Parliament to question the Electoral Commission.

UNAMI, he adds, believes that significant changes to the institutional set-up in the Commission would severely disrupt the ongoing electoral preparations and make it impossible to hold credible elections until at a much later date.

He says UNAMI is optimistic that, with its continued and expanded support, the Elections Commission should be able to deliver credible election results in January 2010 that will be broadly accepted by all political factions and the Iraqi voters.

But to achieve this, preparations will need to be accelerated in a number of areas.

At the same time, Melkert once again urged the Council of Representatives to clarify the legal framework for the elections in the coming week.

Mr. Melkert suggests that once the results of the 2010 elections have been officially announced, the Council of Representatives should conduct a thorough evaluation of IHEC's performance in its electoral activities in Iraq since 2008.

Gail Walker, United Nations Radio
(duration: 1'26")