US embassy cable - 05BAGHDAD4094

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BAGHDAD 004094 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/02/2015 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, PTER, KDEM, IZ, Elections 
SUBJECT: IRAQI ELECTION/REFERENDUM PREPARATION ON  TRACK, 
BUT NO REPLACEMENT FOR PIRELLI YET. 
 
REF: BAGHDAD 4071 
 
Classified By: Political Counselor Robert S. Ford for 
reasons 1.4 (B) and (D). 
 
1. (C) SUMMARY.  The Independent Election Commission 
of Iraq (IECI) reports that staffing, training, 
materials, budget, and security preparations for the 
referendum and elections are moving forward according 
to plan.  IECI expects to announce preliminary 
referendum results within two days.  Staffing Anbar 
polling stations is a concern, but the IECI thinks it 
has hired enough workers.  If there are no serious 
complaints on polling day, the IECI can finalize 
results about four days after the referendum. 
Meanwhile, the lack of a senior UN advisor to replace 
interim UN election commission member Carina Pirelli, 
scheduled to leave on October 17, remains a big 
concern as we look ahead to the December 2005 
elections.  END SUMMARY 
 
STAFFING, BUDGET, AND SECURITY PLANNING 
--------------------------------------- 
 
2. (SBU) On October 1 the interim UN IECI Carina 
Pirelli told the international donor community that 
the preparations for the referendum and elections were 
moving forward in accordance with the IECI timeline. 
 
-- MATERIALS:  More than a third of the 33.5 thousand 
polling station kits have arrived at the staging 
center in Sharjah, UAE.  Although this distribution is 
delayed by 2 weeks from previous estimates, the IECI 
is confident that all ballots and polling kits will 
arrive in Iraq by October 8.  Issues relating to 
Chinese customs denial of the ink component have been 
resolved by rerouting the ink to a third country. The 
staging center is working 24/7 to distribute the 
materials to Iraq.  The kits have just begun to arrive 
in Baghdad, Erbil, and Anbar and are being transported 
by international trucking contractors. 
 
-- STAFFING:  The UN reports that polling day workers 
have been identified.  For Anbar, the UN/IECI's David 
Avery told Poloff October 1 that they have 2300 
volunteers slotted to go to the Al Anbar polling 
stations to supplement 800 local polling workers. 
However, he expressed concerns that that many of these 
volunteers would not appear for work on polling day. 
 
-- POLLING CENTERS:  The plan for polling center 
operations is complete.  The IECI expects polls to be 
open until 1900 on referendum day, with possible minor 
changes in closing time depending upon actual events. 
Due to concern for voter privacy, the media will 
generally not be allowed cameras or tape recorders in 
polling centers.  However, there will be several 
designated polling centers that will allow media to 
bring cameras and other equipment.  IECI expects to 
open five polling centers in the International Zone. 
 
-- TRAINING:  Training of polling workers is on-going 
in the governorates. 
 
-- SECURITY:  The basic security plan is set.  IECI 
intends to have two armed IP at each polling center 
with the middle and outer ring cordon protected by 
Iraqi military and MNF-I, respectively. 
 
-- DETAINEE VOTING:  Although the IECI originally 
rejected the idea for detainee voting, they are now 
reconsidering to offer detainee voting at large MNF-I 
and Iraqi detention sites (ref). 
 
TALLYING 
-------- 
 
3. (SBU) International electoral team leader Davis 
Avery told Poloff October 2 that IECI should have 
preliminary results of the referendum within two days 
of polling.  Votes will be counted at the polling 
stations immediately after close of polling, and then 
transmitted to the national tallying center for 
totaling of results.  If there are no serious 
complaints on polling day, Avery said IECI can 
finalize results in about four days.  All formal 
complaints must be filed within three days after the 
alleged violation.  For additional details on IECI 
rules and regulations on Adjudication of Election and 
Referendum Complaints and Disputes, and Polling and 
Counting visit www.ieciraq.org. 
 
WHERE'S THE NEW UN COMMISSIONER? 
-------------------------------- 
 
4. (C) UN/EAD representative Pirelli is scheduled to 
leave Iraq permanently on October 17.  Taking into 
account the required UN two-week security training 
prior to arrival to Baghdad, her replacement would 
need to have already started training in order to 
arrive on time with minimum overlap.  Pirelli has been 
key to resolving many contentious electoral issues, 
and without someone of her stature advising the IECI 
on electoral preparations, the quality of the 
elections process for December may be seriously 
affected. 
Satterfield