Top UN envoy holds long series of talks with Iraqi leaders to ensure success of polls

The top United Nations envoy in Iraq is continuing talks with the country’s various Iraqi leaders to ensure that elections scheduled for the first week in March can be conducted in a credible manner with the help of the international community, leading to an outcome acceptable to the Iraqi people.

“The UN has called upon the competent Iraqi authorities to finalize the process for the preparation of the candidate lists for the 7th March elections, prior to the start of the campaigning period next week,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Representative Ad Melkert said in a statement today.

Mr. Melkert, who has been engaged in extensive discussions over the past several weeks, has held bilateral meetings to share the experience of the UN in other post-conflict countries on resolving disputes that must balance the critical need for justice and accountability of those who have in the past been part of oppressive regimes and the need for peace, reconciliation and inclusion in the democratic process.

He reaffirmed the UN’s full respect for the independence of Iraq’s judiciary: “It is not up to the UN to make specific political requests or to advice on how the Iraqi courts should resolve pending judicial cases,” he said.

“What matters is a proper legal basis for decisions, including the right for candidates that their appeal is carefully considered and to remain a candidate until such an appeal has been dealt with appropriately.”