Since election results will be accepted only insofar as the process is deemed free, fair, and inclusive, what is the baseline for successful elections?
A14. Most experts agree that the level of participation in the electoral process must be roughly proportional to the ethnic and religious breakdown of the general population for the results to be considered as legitimately reflecting Iraqi society. This reality was imposed on the process by the decision of the Coalition Provisional Authority, written in the Transitional Administrative Law, to regard Iraq as a single electoral unit rather than to have multiple districts i.e., have each of the existing administrative providences elect its representatives to the 275 member national assembly. Multiple districts would have established the number of seats for each electoral unit, thereby effectively guaranteeing proportional representation even for areas such as the Sunni triangle where violence might reduce voter turnout. With Iraq considered a single unit, areas with suppressed voter turnout will be under-represented in the assembly, which will call into question the ballots fairness and i
