Iraq’s President called for Elections Commission’s independence – Chairman

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The Chairman of the Independent Elections Commission in Iraq, Faraj al-Haidary, said on Monday that Iraqi President Jalal Talabani had not criticized his Commission, but called for its activity to become independent and not bias towards any party. “The president’s speech did not criticize the Commission. He called for its activity to be independent and not biased. It should not be forced to lean towards certain trends. For our part, we can confirm the necessity of the Commission being kept away from political conflicts, highly assessing the president’s call that this Commission must keep itself away from the control of parties and be on an equal distance with all sides,” Haidary told IraqiNews.com news agency.  Noteworthy is that Jalal al-Mashta, who represented the Iraqi President in a Conference to Study the Development of the Political & Legislative Process, held by the independent Shams Network, in cooperation with the Elections Network in the Arab World, had said in the speech he delivered on behalf of President Talabani that the main party in steering the elections process is the Elections Commission; hence it should keep away from interferences, whilst it should revise its attitude towards the mechanism of its activity, taking into consideration the notes by the Parliament or others. The Legislature for the National Alliance, Ali al-Shilah, has stated on April 4, 2010, that more than 106 Parliament members had signed a demand by Legislature, Hanan al-Fatlawi, to question the Chairman and Members of the Elections Commission, due to suspicions of existence of corruption cases inside the Commission. SKH (TI)SR 467