Iraqi official expects high turnout in election

A top Iraqi electoral official says he expects a high turnout in the country’s upcoming parliamentary elections which is to be held on March 7, 2010.

In an exclusive interview with Press TV, the chairman of Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission Faraj Al-Haidari said the next month general election is another step towards democracy in the country.

Al-Haidari dismissed allegations of pressure and interference from the US Embassy in the electoral process.

Head of Iraq’s Accountability and Justice Commission Ahmed Chalabi charges that the US interferes in the war-torn country’s electoral process.

Earlier in February, Chalabi accused Washington of putting pressure on the commission in charge of vetting the candidates.

“The appeal committee was publicly submitted to the pressure of foreign groups, like [US] Vice President Biden who said when he was in Iraq that he hoped Iraqi justice will dissolve the committee of integrity and accountability,” Chalabi said.

Al-Haidari reiterated that the commission he is heading has been independent and is playing its own role. He went on to assure Iraqis that tight security measures would be taken to prevent any violence on Election Day.

Also On Wednesday, Iraq’s leading Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Husseini al-Sistani called on voters to come to polls en masse turn and cast their votes without endorsing a particular party.

Grand Ayatollah Sistani’s support is seen as essential to boosting turnout for the upcoming parliamentary election, which is widely viewed as a test of reconciliation in Iraq after the sectarian bloodshed that followed the US-led invasion of 2003.

“Ayatollah Sistani sees it as critical that all people — men and women — who care about the future of the country and rebuilding it… participate in the election,” a statement from his office said.

“Turning away from participation, for whatever reason, will give them a chance to achieve their illegitimate goals,” it said, without specifying who Sistani meant by “them.”