Baghdad, Iraq -

`We are afraid to go to Church! This year we could not even celebrate Christmas!  How do you expect us to go and vote!`
    - 32 year old Mary Gewargis said in Baghdad.

 With the election less than one month away voices from throughout Iraq as well as from the Iraqi Expatriate community throughout the world are demanding that the election be postponed.

Nineb Lamassau, an Assyrian Activist in London put it this way `Not only is it impossible to vote in Iraq under these circumstances, but it is the same for those Iraqis living overseas. Simply put the whole arrangement is a mess!

We are less than one month before the election and the requirements for voting, who qualifies and the basic infrastructure of the election has not even been put in place. It is an insult to all of us.`

Dr. John Michael, another Activist from Chicago in the US puts it this way `To those of us who have watched this from the beginning it is very clear - someone is trying to engineer the election to create the Islamic Republic of Iraq.

We have reports of up to one million Iranians coming across the border into Iraq with false identification. Further, it is physically impossible to organize our people to vote in such limited time. It is less than one month before the election and the system is not even in place yet!

In Washington recently President Yawar of Iraq echoed the view of up to one million Iranians coming across the border as a major area of concern for the upcoming elections.

The original plan of the Coalition Provisional Authority - the US Administration in Iraq previous to June 28th was very simple - as had happened in Japan there was to have been a Constitution written, followed by elections, then a Government assembled and only after these steps had been completed was there to have been a handover.

For various reasons ranging from the November Elections to a desire to hand over more authority to the Iraqis and the UN the schedule was scrapped and what many view as a hasty handover was done two days earlier than the originally planned June 30.

Former CPA official, Michael Rubin says `When I was a roving CPA Political Advisor I lived outside the Green Zone and interacted not only with Iraqi Citizens but also with ordinary people. . . . advocates of an Iranian style Islamic Republic were blunt `The first article in a democracy is the rule of the majority over the minority.`

Liberal - constitutionalist as well as democratic Iraqis favor a constituency based election.`

As is often the case the devil is in the details. Carlo Ganjeh, who grew up in Iran remembers the time of Khoneni. `What I see in Iraq is just what happened in Iran. The radical Islamists have one election and that is the final one as they did in Iran. They have one election under whatever situation they can and then they claim legitimacy. They are repeating in Iraq just what we saw in Iran. It seems like they are using the same textbook that Khomeni did when he took over Iran and created the disaster and worldwide threat Iran is today.

Frankly, we do not trust the United Nations. It seems to us they are cooperating in this creation of a radical moslem state.`

The Assyrian Christians, the indigenous people of Iraq are fighting back with an international website which is registering their people, helping those who need more paperwork and updating the most current information at www.assyrianvote.com.

With Iraqis major Sunni party officially boycotting the election, Al Jazeera, the radical arab Television station reported that the election will most likely be postponed.

For those who care about Iraqis future that is good news.

Joseph Sarkis, says `We want a fair and open election. The majority of the Iraqis are against any kind of radical religious state and simply want to become a normal country again. The radical moslems are desperate to have the election go ahead so they can use forgery, intimidation and all the other tools they always use to steal the election from the common people.

We demand that the election be postponed and it be changed from the `winner take all` system that is designed to create the Islamic Republic of Iraq to a constituency based, normal representative election that will allow all Iraqis equal rights and not create a radical islamic state`

Those directly involved with the election both in and outside of Iraq are united in one simple call - the delay of the Iraqi Election as the only way to ensure a fair, honest and representative government.

Only when people are confident enough to be able to attend Church will they be confident enough to vote.