Elections in Iraq a logistical nightmare

The more I read about the upcoming elections in Iraq, the more I don't think the interim government will be able to pull them off. I think they are logistically impossible.

Set aside the crumbly foundation for future peace that would be set by excluding the conflicting areas of the country and consider what is neccessary for free and fair elections to happen in Iraq. Carina Perelli, Director of the United Nations Electoral Assistance Division, described the logistical job this way back in June:

In terms of the training and capacity-building needs facing the Electoral Commission and the United Nations, she said that an estimated 30,000 polling stations would be needed countrywide, which meant approximately 120,000 to 130,000 individuals working on polling and vote counting. Those individuals would be trained by the Electoral Commission, including through cascade training; however, the members of the Commission were to be trained by the United Nations and other international trainers.

120,000 individuals working at 30,000 polling stations? In three months? Even in peace, that would be difficult, let alone in the middle of 100 attacks a day, plus car bombings, plus kidnappings.

Then there is the political situation -- the areas that both Rumsfeld and Powell say might be excluded from the election - Falluja, Najaf, Basra, Summara, even Baghdad - represent about half of the population of Iraq. How on earth will the election be viewed as legitimate when half the population is likely to be excluded.

Finally, the security situation is likely to supress voter turnout, to say the least. Given the propensity for the isurgents to blow up people standing in line to participate in the new Iraq, how likely is it that people will come to vote?

To a person, the first hand accounts of the situation there all say the same thing: The security is very, very bad. The King of Jordan says the same thing.

The monarch said it was too dangerous to hold elections in Iraq and said if the U.S.-backed interim Iraqi government pushed ahead with them, extremists could well be the biggest winners.

Good point King Abdullah. What happens if an election is held and the extremists win?