Key Sunni Leader Calls for January Elections

Iraq’s interim president, an influential Sunni Muslim, Wednesday threw his support behind holding elections as scheduled on Jan. 30, despite insurgent threats that he said had paralyzed voter registration in some Sunni areas.

Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi met Iraqi Sunni tribal leaders in Amman, Jordan, trying to drum up support for the election, which is seen as vital for building a democratic government in Iraq.

Allawi ruled out meeting leaders of the insurgency but conferred with figures who are influential in Sunni regions of central Iraq, where insurgent violence has been fiercest.

Leading Sunni clerics have called for a boycott to protest the battle for Fallouja and the continued American military presence in Iraq. That prompted several key Sunni politicians to call for delaying the balloting by up to six months.

However, President Ghazi Ajil Yawer, who wields considerable influence among Sunni tribal figures, told reporters in Baghdad that he opposed any delay.

“Legally and morally, we have to abide by the date set for the elections in the country’s administrative law,” which mandates a ballot by the end of January, Yawer said.

He acknowledged that the lack of security in some Sunni areas had disrupted preparations for the election, in which Iraqis will choose a national parliament to draft a permanent constitution.

“There are areas in Iraq where the security situation is very bad,” he said. “There are areas where no one has been able to give out even one voter registration sheet.”

In Mosul, an American military group touring the city to discuss election preparations came under rocket-propelled grenade and small arms fire Wednesday, witnesses said.

One American soldier was wounded in the gun battle that followed, the witnesses said.