Iraq political parties (including main Shia and Kurd parties) want polls to be put off

After a meeting at Pachachi's house in Baghdad on Friday attended by at least three cabinet ministers, 15 parties and political groups signed a petition saying the polls should be postponed for up to six months.

Iraq's electoral commission said it will examine the request.

"We will examine this request tomorrow morning. It's a very
complicated question," Commission Chairman Abd al-Husayn al-Hindawi told AFP.

Meanwhile, the electoral commission has extended the deadline for parties to present their full lists of candidates for the elections, so as to allow them more time to form alliances.

"We have decided to push the deadline for registering candidates to 5 December in the provinces and 10 December in Baghdad," Abd al-Husayn al-Hindawi said.

He said the decision was made "upon the request of several political figures, and in order to allow the formation of joint lists and the broadest possible participation".

Registration

To register, firstly a list name of a political entity - a party, group or individual - must be announced.

Secondly, the full nominal list of candidates running on that list must be announced once it has been approved by the commission.

The deadline for the first stage of this process was originally set for 22 November. The commission has received 232 applications.

Political entities must announce their list name, submit a logo and produce a list of 500 signatures of support.

Candidacy conditions

Parties have to write a cheque for 7.5 million dinars ($5000), while individuals have to pay only a third of that amount.

As per Friday's decision, the second phase of the registration has been moved back from 23 November to 5 December in the provinces and from 30 November to 10 December in Baghdad.

he number of candidates on any list must be no lower than 12 and no higher than 275, which is the number of seats in the future national assembly.

A candidate must be aged at least 30 and hold a high school degree. Former members of the Baath party, which ruled under the deposed government of Saddam Hussein, must first renounce their ideology in a written statement.

The official electoral campaign will kick off on 15 December and end on 28 January, 48 hours before the vote.

Parties have spent recent weeks locked in intense talks to form alliances and try to clinch a maximum number of seats in the single, proportional ballot.

Aljazeera + Agencies

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/B869217C-3556-4BDB-B3EF-7BD8CF7AA88C.htm

Several leading Iraqi political parties have called for the national elections scheduled for 30 January to be delayed.

At least 10 political groups, including the two large Kurdish parties and the party of former presidential candidate Adnan Pachachi, have backed the call.

Fierce fighting between insurgents and US-led forces in Sunni Arab areas has already prompted Iraq's top Sunni parties to threaten a poll boycott.

Iraq's interim constitution says polls must take place by the end of January.

The Iraqi electoral commission has said it will consider the parties' demand for the polls to be postponed by six months.

"We will examine this request tomorrow morning. It's a very complicated question," commission spokesman Abdel Hussein al-Hindawi told French news agency AFP.

Representatives of Iraq's Shia community, which accounts for about 60% of the population, have said they are keen to avoid any delay in holding elections.

Petition

The BBC's Caroline Hawley in Baghdad says the unstable security situation is not the only factor behind calls for the delay. Kurdish groups in the north of the country are said to be concerned that heavy snow in January may hinder their participation in the process.

The political parties signed a petition calling for the postponement after a meeting at Mr Pachachi's house on Friday.

At least three cabinet ministers from the interim government are said to have been present.

There are unconfirmed reports that a representative of interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's party signed the petition.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4046111.stm