EU to Support Iraq's Election Preparations
AP 2004/09/28
Belgium
The European Union will support preparations for elections in Iraq even if violence keeps the vote from taking place throughout that country, a spokeswoman said today.
Emma Udwin told reporters the EU was spending $36 million in election preparations. The money is being used for everything from training electoral officers to providing voter information for the elections scheduled for January 2005.
"We will support (elections) with money and we will support it with expertise," Udwin said. "There is a strong will to see elections take place."
However, she said that due to the continuing poor security situation in Iraq, the EU was not preparing to send a team of election observers.
"Those elections do not need to have all of the qualities that we would expect in Paris or Berlin ... It may be that an election that is not perfect is still useful," she said. "There are different degrees of democracy. The crucial consideration will be 'is the result of the election accepted by the people of Iraq?'."
EU's top foreign policy officials, Javier Solana, said Monday that the 25-nation bloc was against changing the Iraq election timetable, siding with the United States, which said despite the violence, elections should go ahead.
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