BAGDHAD, Dec 23 (AFP) - Iraqi elder statesman Adnan Pachachi said Thursday that he remained concerned a widespread boycott of next month's landmark elections by Sunni Arabs would leave the restive former elite without a say.
"A low turnout in large swathes of Iraq and a boycott by significant sections of the population would deprive millions of Iraqis of effective participation in the drafting of the permanent constitution," said Pachachi, a former foreign minister now in his 80s.
On January 30, voters will elect a transitional national assembly tasked with writing a new constitution to replace the interim charter drawn up under the US-led occupation, as well as provincial councils and a Kurdish regional parliament.
Pachachi has been pushing for a six-month postponement, arguing that boycott calls by leading Sunni clerics and fears of violence will spark a massive boycott by the minority community which dominated Saddam Hussein's regime and all previous Iraqi governments.
But his calls were rejected by the interim government and its US backers, as well as the main parties representing the long oppressed Shiite majority.
Pachachi confirmed that he had been invited to join the electoral list of Iraq's US-backed interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi but had declined the offer.
There had been "difficulties reaching agreement on the numbers and placing of candidates from each side on the joint list," he said.
Pachachi denied Iraqi press reports that two interim ministers from his Rally of Independent Democrats had defected to Allawi's Iraqi List.
The lists were finalised on Monday but electoral commission officials were not immediately available to confirm which list Planning Minister Mahdi al-Hafez and Electricity Minister Ayham al-Samarrai were standing on.
12/23/2004 14:38 GMT - AFP