Baghdad, Dec 01: The US-picked Iraqi Governing Council is rethinking an agreement with Americans for a power handover by July, with officials saying the council has set up a committee to assess the best way to choose a provisional legislature. At a council gathering yesterday, members agreed to setup a committee to "discover the best ways to include the Iraqi people in the process of choosing the members of a provisional assembly," said Jalal Eddin al-Sagheer, an official who attended the meeting.

Council members agree that "elections are the best way to precisely know the opinion of the Iraqi people, but there are several difficulties," said al-Sagheer, an aide to Shiite governing council member Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim.

One of the problems in setting up elections is the absence of an accurate census and of voting rolls, he said.

Entifadh Qanbar, a spokesman for influential council member Ahmed Chalabi, confirmed the council agreed to assess how to transfer power from the occupation authorities to Iraqis. But he said no decision had been made on whether to push for elections.

On Nov 15, the council signed an agreement with officials of the us-led occupation that laid out a plan to elect the legislature from regional caucuses. But the council appeared to backtrack after Iraq's powerful Shiite Muslim leadership objected to the plan for Iraqi sovereignty.
Bureau Report