IRAQ: Election Comes Up Amid
Tension and Hope Analysis by Mohammed Amin Abdulqadir ARBIL, Iraq, Dec 14 (IPS) - Tensions between ethnic and religious groups
have been rising in Iraq ahead of the elections Thursday.
The vote wile be the third in less than a year, and the last step in the
current process of political transition to a democratic government.
Unlike the Jan. 30 elections this year, Sunni Arabs are expected to turn out
in massive numbers for this new round.
According to the figures released by the Electoral Commission of Iraq, about
7,000 candidates from 228 slates will be contesting for the 275 seats in the
parliament. The parliament will elect a government for a four-year term.
The four major competing lists are those of the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) of
the major Shia religious parties, the Kurdistan Alliance List (KAL) of the two
major Kurdish parties in the north, the Patriotic Iraqi List (PIL) led by
former prime minister Ayad Allawi, and the Iraqi Accord Front (IAF) comprising
the three major Sunni Arab parties.
Some divisions have emerged among Sunni leaders over participation in the
elections.. Despite the determination of Sunni political groups to
participate, influential religious organisations such as the Muslim Scholars
Association (MSA) have said they will not participate in any elections "held
under occupation." But the group stopped short of calling for a boycott.
In another sign of Sunni eagerness to gain as many seats as possible in the
new parliament, the insurgent group Jaish al-Islami (Islamic Army) has said
voters should not be targeted.
Sunnis have produced also some star candidates. Former Iraqi soccer player
Ahmad al-Razi is campaigning on the Sunni list.
Over the past few months Sunni leaders have accused the Shia-controlled police
and army forces of launching indiscriminate arrest campaigns in Sunni
neighbourhoods in Baghdad and in other Sunni cities in the central part of the
country.
A few weeks ago a secret jail was discovered in the Jadiriya neighbourhood of
Baghdad where more than 100 Sunnis were reportedly tortured by Shia militia
groups linked to the party of interior minister Jaber Bayan Solagh. The
results of an inquiry into the allegations have been withheld until the
election is over.
Shia parties are suspicious of Sunni intentions in participating in the
elections. They say Sunnis want to change the constitution which was approved
in a referendum last October.
"There are some people who work for a non-recognition of the constitution and
try to change it...we must confront them and not allow any encroachment on the
achievements of the Iraqi people," Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, leader of Iraq's
largest Shia party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution of Iraq
said in a statement.
Shias also disagree with Sunnis on a number of other issues such as the
eradication of the Sunni-dominated former Ba'ath party, and over armed
resistance by Sunni groups against Iraqi government and U.S. troops. Shias
describe the resistance as "terrorism".
In a surprising development, the Shia religious authority, the Marja'ia has
refused to support any slate, and has called upon political parties not to use
religious symbols on their election posters. This is seen as a sign of Shia
Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani's unhappiness with the conduct of the interim Shia-led
government. Sistani had endorsed the UIA in the Jan. 30 election.
Kurdish leaders have said they would prefer not to enter a coalition with
Shias, as they had in the interim government.
"We are concerned about that alliance, because they have not honoured the
protocol signed between us," Massoud Barzani, president of the Iraqi Kurdistan
region said in a statement. Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party is one of the
main components of the KAL alongside the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan led by
President Jalal Talabani.
"Kurds will enter into alliance with a list that is committed to a federal
democratic Iraq and the current status of autonomy in Kurdistan region," Hemin
Mirani from the Kurdistan Institute for Political Issues, a think-tank in the
northern city of Arbil told IPS.
An alternative to the Shias could be Allawi's list, he said. (END/2005)