Elections for Iraq

In two posts earlier this month, I linked to articles discussing the unfolding political process in Iraq and, more particularly, the demand for direct elections. In today's Guardian there are two pieces by Rory McCarthy on the same issue. In the first, McCarthy reports:

Tens of thousands of protesters marched through Basra yesterday to demand a general election, as an aide to Iraq's most senior Shia cleric warned that he may issue a fatwa against the proposed new government.

The demonstration in the southern Iraqi city was a rare show of strength in support of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani's call for direct elections to choose a new government, and comes as a blow to Washington's plans for a smooth handover of power.

Last night one of the cleric's aides warned that if the US administrator in Baghdad, Paul Bremer, does not accept his demand, Ayatollah Sistani may issue a ruling telling Iraq's Shia majority not to accept the new government, which is due to take power by July.

The second McCarthy report quotes Sistani as follows:

The mechanism to create an interim government does not at all represent the Iraqi people in a just way... The best mechanism is to have proper elections ... Otherwise the new government will not be able or qualified to work. The political situation will be worse and the security situation will be worse.

The military intervention in Iraq had democratization as one of its stated aims, and whatever practical difficulties there may now be in organizing proper elections, they just have to be negotiated. The political costs of resisting a perfectly legitimate demand will almost certainly be higher than trying to sort out such practical difficulties.