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Iraqis submit candidate list for elections
29.10.2005
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BAGHDAD, Iraq - A
Sunni Arab coalition submitted its list of
candidates for the December election Friday, joining
other political factions in the race and signaling
greater Sunni participation in a process Washington
hopes will help speed the day when U.S. soldiers can
go home.
The U.S. command announced that five more American
service members were killed in Iraq, indicating the
challenges still facing the United States and its
partners as this country approaches a decisive stage
in its political development. It has been six months
since Iraq's government took office April 28.
At least 16 coalitions as well as an undetermined
number of parties and independents met the Friday
deadline of filing for the Dec. 15 election, when
voters select a 275-member parliament to serve for
four years.
It will be the first full-term parliament in Iraq
since Saddam Hussein's regime collapsed after the
U.S.-led invasion of 2003.
The election follows the Oct. 15 ratification of the
new constitution, which many Sunni Arabs opposed.
Despite the failure of Sunni Arabs to block the
charter, the decision by a Sunni coalition to
participate and the presence of prominent Sunnis on
other tickets indicated that many members of the
community, which forms the core of the insurgency,
have not abandoned the political process.
Political battle lines, in fact, have been drawn as
before along ethnic and religious lines, a
development that complicates nation-building in this
factious, war-ravaged country of 27 million people.
The major blocs include a Shiite alliance built
around two religious parties with ties to Iran, a
broad coalition led by former Prime Minister Ayad
Allawi, a secular Shiite, and the Sunni Arabs.
Iraq's two main Kurdish parties will run on a single
ticket.
Allawi's ticket includes several prominent Sunni
Arabs, including Vice President Ghazi al-Yawer and
Sunni elder statesman Adnan Pachachi, as well as the
communists. It hopes to appeal to Iraqis fed up with
religiously based politics.
But the ethnic and religious character of most of
the tickets illustrates the sectarian nature of
Iraq's postwar politics. Following the collapse of
Saddam's Sunni-dominated regime, majority Shiites
and Kurds have been pressing for the power so long
denied them.
Many Sunni Arabs believed the Americans and their
foreign allies favored the Shiites and Kurds,
thereby fueling the insurgency and triggering
sectarian reprisal killings that have sharpened the
religious and ethnic fault lines.
With many Sunni Arabs having boycotted the Jan. 30
balloting, the Shiite coalition - the United Iraqi
Alliance - won about 140 of parliament's 275 seats.
The Kurds got 75 seats, disproportionately greater
than their share of the population, estimated at
15-20 percent.
The Shiite alliance is unlikely to repeat that
success, although the bloc is expected to win the
largest number of seats. Shiites form an estimated
60 percent of the population.
The Shiite-dominated government of Prime Minister
Ibrahim al-Jaafari is widely perceived as having
failed to improve services or reduce the violence,
which has claimed at least 3,902 Iraqi lives since
the administration took office in April.
Fewer Shiites voted in the constitutional referendum
than had been expected, signaling discontent with
the performance of Shiite politicians.
Unlike the last election, Iraq's top Shiite cleric,
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has withheld his
endorsement of the Shiite Alliance. Al-Sistani's
support in January is widely credited with the
alliance's strong electoral performance.
The alliance was also unable to persuade Deputy
Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi, a former Pentagon
insider, to join its ranks. Chalabi will head of his
own ticket, which could further split the Shiite
vote. Efforts were under way late Friday to try to
persuade Chalabi to rejoin the alliance.
Leaders of the alliance dismiss criticism, pointing
out that the government was able to produce a
constitution and tackle corruption despite its short
tenure in office.
"We could not tackle terrorism in a comprehensive
manner in such a short time," said lawmaker Jalal
al-Sagheer.
The Sunni Arab bloc includes the Iraqi Islamic
Party, the country's largest Sunni Arab group, and
has said it may join forces with Allawi's supporters
after the election.
The Kurdish bloc is expected to end up with 40 to 50
seats and may also ally with Allawi to try to form a
government if the Shiites fall short of a majority.
The Kurds, who are mostly Sunnis, have bickered with
their Shiite allies in the current government.
AP
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