Interest high for election board on day Iraqi leader assassinated

UN officials announced on Monday that more than 1,400 people had applied to be on a board to oversee elections expected in January 2005. The announcement came after news of the assassination of the leader of the Iraqi Governing Council (IGC), Abdel-Zahraa Othman, more commonly known as Izzadine Saleem. He was killed in a suicide car bomb attack near a gate into the heavily guarded "green zone" where virtually all US administrators in Baghdad are based. Saleem was the rotating president of the IGC, the temporary government named by US-led administrators earlier this year. He was one of four Iraqis killed in the brazen attack. IGC members said they would not be deterred by the killings. "This weighs heavily on our hearts and minds," Ahmed Fawzi, spokesman for Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN Special Adviser to Secretary-General Kofi Annan, told IRIN. "The (IGC) chairman said this will only increase their determination to serve." Brahimi is currently meeting people throughout the country to discuss a "caretaker government" expected to take over Iraq sovereignty on 30 June. He was in Arbil in northern Iraq over the weekend, Fawzi said. Brahimi's schedule is not released in advance for security reasons. At the same time, the eight-member independent commission is to be involved with voter registration and election rules, among other things. "This demonstrates a healthy enthusiasm to participate," an official close to the process said. Names are not being released, or even where the most applications came from, for security reasons, the official said. Saturday was the deadline for applications. Applicants will be interviewed and a smaller number will be selected by Coalition officials. A final list will be submitted to US administrator Paul Bremer and IGC members for approval. It was unclear how Saleem's death might affect the election board, the official said. Some application sites around the country were not accessible to the public, the official said, including several in the restive area loyal to former President Saddam Hussein known as the "Sunni Triangle" west and north of Baghdad. But almost 300 of the 17-page applications came in by Internet, the official said. Despite intermittent electricity and ongoing connectivity problems, more than 12,000 "hits" were recorded on the application web site, allaying fears that people in Iraq are not able to access the Internet, he said. Hamdiya Najaf, deputy in the Ministry of Displacement and Migration, said Saleem's killing weighed heavily on her, as she was sure it would on all Iraqis trying to serve their country. Najaf's office, which is surrounded by five-metre-high concrete walls, is no more than 200 metres from another American checkpoint that was bombed earlier this spring. "All of the good people are targeted, not the bad people," Najaf said. Officials said others in Saleem's car were also killed, including his driver and an assistant. A witness said the car carrying the bomb pulled up next to Saleem's and exploded. Saleem was the second member of the 25-member IGC to be assassinated. Aquila al-Hashimi, one of only three women, was wounded 20 September by gunmen. She died five days later.