BEIRUT -- With less than three weeks before Iraq's national election, there are still major logistical problems that could seriously undermine the vote, according to a United Nations memo obtained by Newsday.

A recent poll found that 40 percent of Iraqis think they will be voting for a president, rather than a National Assembly, which will appoint a central government and draft a permanent constitution that will govern Iraq for years to come.

Ballots still need to be printed and flown into the country; some of the warehouses where ballots will be stored are vulnerable to attack; and the names of thousands of candidates are still being entered into computer databases. Moreover, insurgents target anyone associated with the vote, and the Iraqi election commission has found it so difficult to hire enough poll workers that it is asking to use teachers and school administrators.

The hurdles highlight how a short timeframe for planning the Jan. 30 balloting - combined with a relentless insurgency that has taken control of swaths of the country - could impede the safeguards needed to ensure that Iraq has its first free election in decades.

Iraq is already trying to pull off the fastest election in a war-ravaged country in modern times. Post-conflict countries usually take a year or longer to organize an election; the Iraqis are trying to do it in seven months.

"There is not enough time to work out all the details," said a foreign consultant working with Iraqi election planners, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "People still don't know the rules. There is not enough voter education."

Iraq is going to have 20 different elections on the same day: a countrywide vote for a 275-member National Assembly; an election for a 111-member Kurdistan National Assembly, which will govern the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq; and elections in each of Iraq's 18 provinces for governorate councils.

The multiple elections contribute to voter confusion, and pose another set of obstacles for election organizers. A recent poll found that 40 percent of Iraqis think they will be voting for a president, rather than a National Assembly, which will appoint a central government and draft a permanent constitution that will govern Iraq for years to come.

The eight-page memo, prepared at the end of last month by the chief UN election official in Iraq, notes an array of difficulties:

A security assessment found that in several parts of the country, the warehouses for storing ballots are not "fully defendable" in case of attack. If these ballots were destroyed, the election might have to be canceled in entire provinces. But the memo notes that "all these facilities are extremely spacious, allowing for good maneuverability of electoral materials during storage and distribution."

The Iraqi election commission is asking the government to use schools as polling stations, even though the sites are likely to be attacked by insurgents. The commission is also trying to draft teachers and school administrators to work the polls on election day, an indication that the commission is having a hard time hiring the 40,000 election workers needed.

There's going to be a reduction in the number of polling stations, from an earlier estimate of 40,000 to about 29,000.

The final computer database containing the names of all candidates is still being prepared. Preliminary figures show there are about 19,000 candidates for all 20 elections. About 6,200 candidates are running for National Assembly seats. A vast majority of the candidates are running on party slates. Overall, 223 political parties and 33 coalitions have registered to take part in either the local or national elections. Of this total, 106 have presented slates for the national parliament.

In Anbar province, which includes the insurgent strongholds of Fallujah and Ramadi, there are only 43 candidates competing for the 41-seat provincial council. And the regional election office in Anbar province is still closed because of security concerns.

Paper ballots for all 20 elections are going to be printed and collated outside of Iraq (mainly in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates) and they will be flown into Baghdad International Airport. From there, the ballots will have to be distributed to warehouses across the country, posing another security challenge.

The Bush administration, Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and leaders of Iraq's Shia Muslim majority all insist that the election should go ahead as scheduled, despite concerns about security and poor preparations. But many Sunni Muslim groups are pushing for a delay until the insurgency can be brought under control.

Without significant participation by the Sunni minority, Iraqis fear the election would lack legitimacy and could drag the country toward civil war. Those fears were reinforced last week, when Iraq's largest Sunni political party said it was pulling out of the race because of the lack of security and poor planning.

The UN is not playing a major role in organizing the Iraqi election, as it has in Afghanistan, Kosovo and other places wracked by war. In Iraq, planning is being done by the Independent Electoral Commission, a nine-member body selected by UN specialists. But foreign consultants say the commission is understaffed, having hired only 900 local workers to undertake a monumental task without much international assistance.

Of the 40 UN workers now in Iraq, only six are election specialists. In Afghanistan, which held its first-ever democratic election in October, the UN deployed about 600 international staff members, including 266 election experts.

Last month, three Iraqi election workers were killed in an ambush carried out by dozens of gunmen on a busy Baghdad street. One employee was photographed being dragged out of a car and shot in the head. The images became indelible in the minds of Iraqis and underscored the vulnerability of all election workers.

"People can't focus on their election job," the consultant said, "when they're worried about their lives."

Copyright © 2005 NY Newsday

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