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Iraqi Shiites Unveil Electoral Alliance, Sadr Absent
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The
unified list contained 25 groupings, at least eight of which are
Shiite formations, said Adib (C) (AFP)
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BAGHDAD,
December 9 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Iraq’s major
Shiite groups unveiled Thursday, December 9, a much-talked-about
unified list of 228 candidates to vie in the general elections,
scheduled for January 30, with the absence of anti-occupation young
Shiite leader Muqtada Al-Sadr.
The
United Iraqi Alliance, backed by Iraq’s highest Shiite religious
authority Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, includes the Supreme Council
for the Islamic Revolution, the Islamic Dawa Party and the Iraqi
National Congress, led by one-time Pentagon favorite Ahmad Chalabi,
reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The
coalition, however, does not include Sadr, whose fighters battled the
US-led occupation forces in the Shiite holy city of Najaf and the
Baghdad suburb of Sadr City.
Hussein
Shahrastani, a member of the organizing committee, said Sadr had not
registered his group.
He
argued that the young Shiite leader “as said repeatedly that he
supports the efforts of the Marjaya (the highest Shiite religious
authority in Iraq) to unite Iraqis and to ensure the elections are
free and fair.”
Protesting
the continued US-led occupation of his country, firebrand Sadr has called
for boycotting the elections.
Sadr
emerged as the man who defended the holiest site in Shiite Islam, in
the city of Najaf, against the formidable military might of the United
States.
But
in August, he ordered
his fighters to disarm and leave the shrine as part of a deal reached
after weeks of fierce clashes with US occupation forces.
“Broad
Alliance”
The
UIA “contains parties and political currents as well as independent
figures of different confessions and ethnic groups and takes into
consideration the demographic and geographic balance in Iraq,”
argued Ali Adib of the Dawa Party.
The
list presented Thursday to the electoral commission contained 25
groupings, at least eight of which are Shiite formations, he said.
According
to Adib, Sunnis, Failis (Kurdish Shiites), Turkmen, and Yazidis are
also represented.
The
Yazidis, who number just a few thousand in Iraq, have lived since the
12th century near the northern town of Mosul.
The
Failis live mostly in Diyala province just north of Baghdad and make
up only two percent of Iraq's mostly Sunni Kurdish population.
The
Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS), the highest Sunni religious
authority in Iraq, has called
for a boycott to the January elections.
So
far, close to 70 groups have threatened to boycott the vote, charging
that any poll should only be held after the withdrawal of foreign
troops, and to protest onslaughts on Sunni cities, particularly
Fallujah.
Some
10,000 US marines and army forces, alongside some 2,000 Iraqi national
guardsmen unleashed
a long-expected onslaught on the resistance hub on
November 8, capping long nights of massive US raids.
Pro-Elections
Representatives
of Iraq's influential Shiite religious organizations have vehemently
opposed calls by some parties for the vote to be postponed over
security concerns.
Mohammad
Al-Askari, an Iraqi military and political Iraqi expert, told
IslamOnline.net on Tuesday, November 30, that Shiites believe it is
high time they dominated
the country’s political landscape after years of
marginalization under the reign of ousted president Saddam Hussein.
“Shiite
authorities want to make the fullest out of the political status quo
and lay to rest strong criticism and accusations from their own
community of being inert,” he said.
Meeting
Sunday, December 5, under the banner "Flawed Elections: Disputed
Results", more than 200 Iraqi politicians and party officials renewed
their call for a six-month delay of the general elections over
the deteriorating security situation.
Seventeen
Iraqi parties, including interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's National
Accord, pressed Friday, November 27, for a six-month delay of the vote
to allow for an improvement of the security conditions in the country.
However,
the proposal was immediately ruled out especially after top Shiite
scholars threatened to withhold support for the interim
government.
UN
Iraqi envoy Lakhdar Brahimi warned that holding the Iraqi elections
would be impossible unless “first and foremost security
improves.”
Iraqis
will choose a 275-member assembly that will write a permanent
constitution.
If
adopted in a referendum next year, the constitution would form the
legal basis for another general election to be held by December, 2005.
Under
an election law adopted this year, there will be no electoral
boundaries for the January vote, with the entire country treated as a
single constituency.
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