BAGHDAD, Jan. 28 -- After the United States invaded Iraq, it built an interim government to prepare the ground for elections Sunday that are "by Iraqis and for Iraqis" -- a phrase U.S. officials here utter routinely. But the credibility of the vote and the legitimacy of the government it yields depend in part on how removed the Americans appear from the process, Iraqi and U.S. officials say.
In a meeting with his senior staff two weeks ago, Army Gen. George W. Casey, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, spelled out the position that coalition forces will take Sunday: "minimal visible presence."
Adil Lami, chief electoral officer of the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, said in an interview Friday that U.S. troops should stay "in the distance, as far away as possible" from polling sites.
Lami and other electoral officials acknowledged, however, that the United States was indispensable in providing the stability necessary for the elections.
"It has been, and remains, our expectation that MNF-I," or multinational forces in Iraq, "will play whatever role is required by local conditions to ensure the security of the polling centers and of the electoral process more generally," Hussein Hindawi, head of the electoral commission, wrote in a Jan. 12 letter to a general in the U.S.-led occupation force.
In most parts of the country, Iraqi police and National Guard units will have primary responsibility for defending the balloting from attacks by insurgents. But in some areas, such as the volatile city of Mosul in the north, the commission has agreed to allow U.S. troops to take a prominent role.
Iraq's interim Interior Ministry is responsible for the security of the elections, Lami said, so it will be its decision, not the commission's, to call in U.S. forces if needed.
The commission has made some decisions that are at odds with the views of U.S. military and Iraqi political leaders. "From a policy standpoint, I see the commission as being quite independent," said Jeff Fischer, an adviser to the U.N. electoral assistance team in Baghdad.
Late last year, for example, the commission rejected calls from several major Iraqi political groups to delay the vote because of the security situation. Lami said he made that decision because he felt "the pressure of the Iraqi people" to hold the elections on time.
The commission also rejected a U.S. military request to produce and distribute materials to encourage voter participation. "They vetoed that," said Brig. Gen. Steven J. Hashem, the top U.S. civil affairs officer in Iraq.
As the vote has approached , Hashem has responded to a wide range of requests from the commission. The occupation has provided maps, cell phones and air cargo space and authorized the use of security firms contracted to help with the elections. U.S.-led forces are also allowing access to the country's airports, which are all under their control, and civil affairs officers have provided technical assistance.
"We try to give them ideas, give them concepts, give them our thoughts on what needs to be done to be successful," Hashem said.
U.S. officers encouraged Iraqi officials and their U.N. advisers to overcome reservations about holding the vote in such conflict-ridden areas as the provinces of Nineveh, where Mosul is located, and Anbar, the area west of Baghdad where the insurgency remains strong, Hashem said.
Lami said that the commission had always been committed to holding the vote throughout the country on Jan. 30.
"The situation in Iraq without the presence of coalition forces would be very bad," Lami said. But he added that the elections would lead to the formation of an Iraqi government and a "schedule for the departure of coalition forces."
