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The electoral commission announced on Wednesday that
the judges had ruled that more than 500 candidates
barred from Iraq's March 7 general election could
stand after all.
Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh branded the
ruling "illegal" and "unconstitutional."
The electoral commission said later it had asked the
Supreme Court to rule on the legality of the judges'
decision, while postponing the start of campaigning
by a week to February 12.
The blacklist sparked tensions between the country's
Shiite majority and its Sunni Arab former elite,
alarming the White House and the United Nations
which both expressed concerns about the election's
credibility.
Washington on Thursday welcomed the judges'
decision.
"We think it's a very useful step toward the
election," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley
told reporters.
"They (the government) should make sure that this
continues to be an open process," Crowley told AFP,
while insisting that it is an Iraqi process.
"We support the widest possible field of candidates,
coming from each of the communities within Iraq, so
that the end result is an election that produces a
government that can govern effectively and can
attract the support of the Iraqi people," he said.
"We would discourage any steps that we think will
hamper the emergence of an effective, popular and
legitimate Iraqi government."
The blacklist was compiled last month by an
integrity and accountability committee responsible
for ensuring that individuals from the former regime
do not take part.
A senior election official told AFP on Wednesday
that the barred candidates, who include people
accused of being in Saddam's outlawed Baath party,www.ekurd.netcan
take part in the vote, subject to a post-ballot
appeals procedure.
"They have the right to run in the election," said
Hamdiyah al-Husseini from Iraq's Independent High
Electoral Commission (IHEC).
"The appeal court will look at their file after the
election," and if they find them to have links to
Saddam's outlawed Baath party, "they will be
eliminated," she said.
Dabbagh, however, said the government vehemently
opposed the decision.
"The government underlines the importance of
respecting Iraq's judicial and constitutional
mechanisms to ensure that the rule of law applies to
all," he said in the statement.
"Delaying the application of the (electoral) law on
integrity and justice until after the elections is
illegal and unconstitutional.
"The appeal decision goes beyond its powers because
it is a duty to enforce the law on integrity and
justice," Dabbagh added.
The law on integrity and justice was adopted on
January 14, 2008 to replace the de-Baathification
Committee, established by the Americans immediately
after the US-led invasion in 2003.
It saw thousands of Saddam-era employees lose their
jobs, before many of them joined the insurgency that
followed the invasion.
US Vice President Joe Biden proposed the
disqualifications be deferred until after the
election during a visit to Baghdad in January at the
height of the crisis over the blacklist, according
to President Jalal Talabani's office.
As well as Baathists, the blacklist, which includes
both Shiites and Sunnis, covered alleged members of
Saddam's once deadly Fedayeen (Men of Sacrifice)
militia and Mukhabarat intelligence division.
The March 7 election, the second in Iraq since
Saddam's ouster, is seen as a test of reconciliation
between the Sunni minority dominant under the former
dictator and the Shiite majority represented by the
present government.
Leaders must "balance the critical need for justice
and accountability of those that have in the past
been part of oppressive regimes and the need for
peace, reconciliation and inclusion in the
democratic process," the UN secretary general's
envoy to Iraq Ad Melkert said on Wednesday.
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
AFP
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