An update with UN comments on the possibility of elections in Iraq as well as a State Department official contradicting Donald Rumsfeld on the topic.
Mr Valenzuela (of the UN) - who has helped organise elections in other countries emerging from conflict such as East Timor and Cambodia - said he was under no illusions about the challenges Iraq posed, but believed elections could be held.
"We have a very tight timeframe, and we're sticking to it, and all the preparations are being done," he said.
He said the electoral commission organising the poll "has found so far that it hasn't been helpful that different people have been speculating whether certain parts of the country will be able or not to participate in the election and whether the elections will be legitimate or not... and [this speculation] might create more danger of people feeling excluded from the process."
The latter was a criticism of Rumsfeld.
"We're going to have an election that is free and open and that has to be open to all citizens. It's got to be our best effort to get it into troubled areas as well," Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told a House committee Friday, after being asked about Rumsfeld's words.
Armitage told reporters after the hearing that: "We absolutely want to hold them in all parts of Iraq." Asked if partial elections were under consideration, he said: "No. Not now. Not that I know of."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3687744.stm
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/20...-armitage_x.htm
And so . . . . we shall see what happens.
Cowperson