Iraq election security is a worry for U.N.

UNITED NATIONS — Planning for national elections in Iraq is ahead of schedule, but violence must decline for the United Nations to oversee them, the chief of the organization's electoral assistance division said Monday.

"If security does not improve, the U.N. won't participate in elections," said the official, Carina Perelli.

Perelli said an estimated $260 million had been set aside to pay for the voting, scheduled for January 2005, and she expressed confidence that an electoral commission could be formed by the end of May, six weeks ahead of schedule.

Under the current arrangement, a caretaker administration takes over from the American-led Coalition Provisional Authority on June 30, and the electoral commission will then prepare the way for elections for a 275-member national assembly by Jan. 31. That assembly will then write a constitution, and a second national election will take place in December 2005.

Three simultaneous elections on Jan. 31 would elect the national assembly, provincial assemblies, and the assembly for the autonomous province of Kurdistan.

Nominations for the seven-member electoral commission and the nonvoting director general of elections opened Sunday and continue through May 15.

Perelli conceded that the process was "cumbersome," but she explained, "In elections, the process is as important as the outcome."