US embassy cable - 05BAGHDAD4432

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BAGHDAD 004432 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/27/2015 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, PTER, KDEM, IZ, Elections 
SUBJECT: IRAQI ELECTIONS: CANDIDATE LIST DEADLINE  LOOMS; 
IECI SAYS WILL HOLD FIRM 
 
Classified By: Political Counselor Robert S. Ford for 
reasons 1.4 (B) and (D). 
 
1. (C) SUMMARY.  One day before the Candidate List 
deadline, the IECI had only received 40 - 50 political 
entity candidate lists containing a little over 600 
potential candidates.  Although this amalgamation of 
names is enough to conduct the December 15 elections 
in 15 of the 18 governorates, the major political 
parties have yet to submit their lists.  Despite this 
low showing, IECI Commissioners have stressed that 
they intend to firmly enforce the October 28 deadline. 
Political parties tonight are busy working on their 
coalitions and election slates.  END SUMMARY. 
 
2. (C) On October 26, PolOff met with IECI Chairman 
Izaddin Al-Mohammdy, Commissioner Abdul Hussein Al- 
Hindawi, and Commissioner Farid Ayar separately. 
During these meetings, the Commissioners each strongly 
stated their commitment to holding firm to the October 
28 deadline for party coalitions and candidate lists. 
Chairman Al-Mohammdy was especially adamant, noting 
that the IECI had already given parties an extension 
to the original deadline and that any additional 
extension could delay the December 15 elections. 
Later in the day, Dr. Farid Ayer told PolOff that 
there was little wiggle room, if any, to the October 
28 date.  He added with flourish that if not enough 
parties handed their candidate submissions in on time, 
the December 15 elections would be postponed. 
(Comment:  as we have reported, we do not believe the 
TAL allows for a postponement.  End Comment.) 
 
3. (C) Al-Mohammday explained to PolOff that time 
constraints on ballot printing dictated that the IECI 
know on October 28 or 29, which coalitions and parties 
would run in which governorates.  He stressed that the 
candidate lists submission went hand in hand with 
political entities declaring in which governorate they 
would run. Part of the reason for candidate lists, he 
said, would be to know which parties to print on the 
Anbar ballot, the Basrah ballot, and so on.  He 
stressed that many political entities would only run 
in some of the governorates and not all. 
 
4. (C) On October 26, Deputy Chief Electoral Officer 
Harith Hassan, gave Pol FSN a preliminary listing of 
the numbers of candidates registered for each 
governorate.  According to that listing, 15 
governorates have sufficient candidates to hold an 
election. No candidate lists have been submitted for 
Anbar, and insufficient candidates have been submitted 
in Baghdad, and Nineweh. 
 
--Anbar; 8 seats, 0 candidates 
--Basrah; 17 seats, 40 candidates 
--Erbil; 13 seats, 19 candidates 
--Qadissiya; 8 seats, 65 candidates 
--Baghdad; 59 seats, 50 candidates 
--Nineweh; 19 seats, 11 candidates 
--Karbala; 6 seats, 6 candidates 
--Kirkuk/Tameem; 9 seats, 18 candidates 
--Diyala; 10 seats, 12 candidates 
--Wassit; 8 seats, 38 candidates 
--Theqar; 12 Seats, 70 candidates 
--Sulaymania; 14 seats, 31 candidates 
--Babil; 11 seats, 102 candidates 
--Dohuk; 7 seats, 20 candidates, 
--Najaf; 8 seats, 41 candidates 
--Salahadeen; 8 seats, 13 candidates 
--Muthana; 5 seats, 37 candidates 
--Misan; 7 seats, 60 candidates 
 
 
5. (C) Of the "small player" entities that have 
submitted candidate lists to date, only a handful have 
opted to run in multiple provinces.  The Iraqi 
Communist Party currently is leading in its scope with 
candidate lists in 12 governorates. The major Shia, 
Sunni, and Kurdish parties, such as the SCIRI, DAWA, 
Al-SADR, PUK, KDP, and IIP, have yet to hand in their 
coalition and candidate lists.  Various contacts told 
us on October 27 that they were busy finalizing lists. 
 
6. (C) Al-Mohammday told PolOff that he and other 
members of the IECI have continued to conduct outreach 
to emphasize the firmness of the deadline.  A press 
release was issued on October 24 as well as on October 
27 affirming this exact message. Additionally, Al- 
Mohammady said, the IECI has been conversing and 
promulgating this theme one-on-one with various 
politicians. 
 
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COMMENT 
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7. (C) While the Commissioners have affirmed that they 
will uphold the October 28 deadline, lack of big name 
party candidate lists could put pressure on the IECI 
to be flexible. However, the IECI will most likely by 
the deadline's time have sufficient candidates to hold 
the election.  This being Iraq, with the lottery to 
determine party/coalition order on the ballots set for 
November 1, some parties may attempt to test the limit 
by delaying their slate registrations until the last 
possible moment. 
 
 
Satterfield