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More than 200 parties register for
parliamentary elections
6.11.2005
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BAGHDAD, 6 Nov
2005 (IRIN) - Some 228 coalitions and political
entities have registered to participate in Iraqi
parliamentary elections scheduled for 15 December,
the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq has
announced.
"We have successfully closed the registration period
for those parties participating in elections,”
Commission Spokesman Farid Ayar said in Baghdad on
Saturday.
He added, “There is much more interest and
participation than in the last government election.”
An earlier election, held in January, was widely
boycotted by Sunni parties.
The Shi'ite United Iraqi Alliance, made up of the
Islamic Daawa party and the Supreme Council for the
Islamic Revolution in Iraq, is the current
frontrunner.
However, unlike in January’s poll, Grand Ayatollah
al-Ali Sistani, one of Iraq's most senior religious
Shi'ite figures, announced he would not be endorsing
the alliance.
The two main Kurdish parties - the Democratic
Kurdistan Party and the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan, backed by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani
- will run together. Meanwhile, former premier Iyad
Allawi is running independently, with a party list
set to include both Sunni and communist elements.
Ayar noted that several minority groups had chosen
to compete in the elections individually, rather
than through alliances with larger entities.
He added, however, that other religious and ethnic
groups were working together in hopes of securing a
majority in the fledgling parliament.
The inclusion of different communities and religious
affiliations, said Ayar, "could be a new and
important beginning for Iraqi democracy, which would
serve to bring more security and development to the
country."
Iraqis will vote to elect a 275-member national
assembly for a four-year term of office.
In a reversal of their earlier decision to boycott
the election in January, Sunni leaders have pledged
full participation this time around.
"If this election is fair, we’re going to surprise
Iraq by winning a large number of parliamentary
seats," Saleh al-Mutalek, spokesman for the Sunni
representation in government, said on Saturday.
The three main political groupings of Sunni Arabs -
who form roughly 20 percent of Iraq's population -
have come together to form a coalition dubbed the
Iraqi Accord Front. "We will show Iraqis that we
represent freedom and an end to the suffering of
thousands of families [at the hands of the US-led
occupation] in Anbar governorate [in western Iraq],"
al-Mutalek said.
In a surprise move, radical Shi'ite leader Moqtada
al-Sadr, intensely opposed to the US-led occupation
of the country, said that some of his political
supporters could join the Sunni alliance.
Several parties have already begun printing
promotional materials in advance of the contest,
with television campaigns expected to start
imminently.
The election follows a 78 percent ‘Yes’ vote in an
October referendum which approved a proposed Iraqi
national constitution.
www.irinnews.org
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