CAIRO, November 30 (IslamOnline.net) – Following years of marginalization under the reign of ousted president Saddam Hussein, Iraq’s Shiites believe it is high time they dominated the country’s political landscape, opposing vigorously putting off general election slated for January 30, a military and political Iraqi expert said on Tuesday, November 30.

“Shiite authorities want to make the fullest out of the political status quo and lay to rest string criticism and accusations from their own community of being inert,” Mohammad Al-Askari told IslamOnline.net in an interview here.

After having been left on the shelf for decades, they resurfaced now as the most powerful and influential in Iraq’s religious and political mosaic, he said.

Askari said Shiite authorities and politicians make use now of the Sunnis’ rejection, chiefly from the Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS), to take part in the January vote under the US occupation and the fierce battles between Sunni resistance groups and the occupation troops.

“Add to that, the Americans do know that they (the Shiites) are a majority in Iraq.”

According to official statistics released following the US occupation of Iraq, Shiites make up 60-65% of the Iraqi people.

However, London-based Al-Quds press news agency said in a January report that the Iraqi Sunnis outnumbered the Shiites in the oil-rich country.

Askari further said that Shiite authorities believe that the elections would help “expediting” the pullout of the US-led occupation troops.

“They want to elect a government as soon as possible to that end,” he said.

The Shiites are confident that “if the elections were put off, it would open the possibility of being postponed sine die or even cancelled under different circumstances, which would means the Shiites would lose their current political privileges,” the expert added.

But Askari said that dismissed the current political status quo in Iraq would lead to politically marginalize the Iraqi Sunnis.

“The occupation authority can’t exclude the Sunnis entirely from the scene and doesn’t mind if they even managed to capture few seats in the (275-member) parliament to give credibility to the political process.”

On the much-criticized Sharm El-Sheikh international conference on Iraq held on November 22-23, Askari, who participated in the event as an independent observer, revealed that it had adopted an undeclared resolution calling for not marginalizing any community in the upcoming election.

“The conference further called on the interim government of Iyad Allawi to hold dialogue with the Sunni resistance and reach a reconciliation with Sunni opposition leaders abroad to set stage for the January vote,” he said.

Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi is due to arrive in Jordan Tuesday for talks with leading Iraqi exiles in an effort to involve all Iraqis in the elections.

“The aim is to find a common ground and explain to them the situation on the ground,” said Thaer Al-Naqib, the Iraqi government spokesman.