IHEC delegation visits Basra

BASRA / IraqiNews.com: A high-level delegation of officials in Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) visited Basra to see to complaints lodged by some of the supporters for turning the province into a region. “A delegation comprising Iyad al-Kattani, Qassem al-Abboudi and a representative of the UN paid a visit to Basra today to look into complaints against the IHEC office in the port city as supporters for turning the province into a region are accusing it of mismanaging the media campaign, setting up only a few ballot stations and hindering the electorate’s will,” Jaber Khalifa, a member of the IHEC, told IraqiNews.com. “The delegation has met with Judge Wael Abdellatif and tribal chiefs and visited civil society organizations and some stations to get acquainted with their work on the ground,” he added. However, Khalifa, who is also the deputy secretary-general of the Fadhila (Virtue) Party, did not reveal the outcome of this visit or whether there were spotted excesses and violations contained in the complaints. Abdellatif, during the early days of the campaign to call for turning Basra province into a region, accused the IHEC of opposing the move. He added that “the commission has not dealt with the signature-collecting campaign as it should be”. He renewed accusations against the IHEC on Friday of hindering “the voters’ will,” threatening to stage a demonstration demanding the dissolution of the Basra commission. On Sunday, supporters of turning Basra province into a region staged a demonstration to call for dissolving the commission. Basra, 590 km (340 miles) south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, has an estimated metropolitan population of 2,300,000 in 2008. Basra, a Shiite province with 20% of the population are Sunnis, is the cradle of the first civilization of Sumer. It hosts Iraq’s seven main ports. The first built in Islam 14 A.H. (After Hegira), the city played an important role in early Islamic history. The area surrounding Basra has substantial petroleum resources and many oil wells. The city’s oil refinery has a production capacity of about 140,000 barrels per day (bpd). The only Iraqi outlet to the sea, Basra is in a fertile agricultural region, with major products including rice, maize corn, barley, pearl millet, wheat and dates as well as livestock. A network of canals flowed through the city, giving it the nickname “The Venice of the Middle East” at least at high tide. AmR (S) 1