Chalabi backing for early election

The US has repeatedly argued that holding elections before the handover of power to an Iraqi government on 30 June was impossible and devised a system of regional caucuses to appoint government members instead.

Earlier this month, Iraq’s leading cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, urged the US to change its plans and allow direct elections. He sent his supporters on to the streets in a show of strength.

In a surprise move, the ayatollah yesterday urged his followers to stop the demonstrations until a UN team decides whether polls are feasible.

But Mr Chalabi has now put the issue right back to the top of the Iraq agenda.

"Direct elections are possible," Mr Chalabi told a think tank conference in Washington. "Seek to make them possible and they will be possible."

Mr Chalabi said census experts in Iraq believe a vote registry could be organised quickly, despite US assertions that it would take too long.

In recent days, Ayatollah Sistani has indicated he will accept the verdict of a United Nations team, which Kofi Annan, the secretary general, is considering sending, to judge whether elections are feasible.

Yesterday, addressing a prayer group in Karbala, Ayatollah Sistani said no protests should be held until the UN’s position has become clear, and "after that we will have our say".

"The elections are not a matter that only the Shiites are concerned with," Abdul-Mehdi al-Karbali, a representative of the ayatollah, quoted the cleric as saying.

"This issue concerns all the sects that comprise the Iraqi people. Sunnis, Christians and all other sects are urged to support the [Shiite] religious order in its position, so that the occupation forces will not adopt any steps that serve their interests and that do not serve the interests of the Iraqi people," Ayatollah Sistani was quoted as saying.