A coalition of 23 mainstream Shiite groups in Iraq, dubbed the United Iraqi Alliance, announced a list on Thursday of 228 candidates running for office in the Iraq elections, scheduled for January 30. Iraq's Sunni factions, who have indicated that they may boycott the election, were not included in the list, and have not announced their own candidates. In the upcoming election, Iraqis will choose a 275-member assembly that will write a permanent constitution. Voting will be done by party list, meaning that people will not vote for individual candidates but for coalitions like the one presented on Thursday.
Quote:Shiites Announce Coalition of Candidates
Shiites Unveil Coalition of 228 Candidates for Iraq Elections; List Excludes Prominent Sunnis
AP Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq Dec 9, 2004 ?- Iraq's mainstream Shiite groups Thursday announced a diverse list of 228 candidates for the Jan. 30 elections, a victory for Shiite leaders who wanted to present a powerful, united front as they seek a leading role in post-Saddam Iraq after years on the sidelines.
Yet Iraq's major Sunni factions, whose participation in the vote will be crucial to making it legitimate, were not included and have not put forward a list of candidates. Also absent was a radical Shiite cleric who could spoil the Shiite unity if he rejects the coalition's authority.
In violence in the run-up to the vote, seven Iraqis were killed in separate clashes in Baghdad and the volatile western city of Ramadi.
A car bomb also rocked a busy Mosul vegetable market, wounding two civilians, while a U.S. soldier was injured by roadside bomb in the capital. Another American soldier suffered minor injuries in a similar attack the day before in Samarra, the scene of clashes that culminated in the resignation of the town's police chief.
The list of 23 parties, dubbed the United Iraqi Alliance, may put new pressure on the Sunnis to join the race for the vote, especially now that it seems far more likely to proceed. Key Sunni leaders have demanded a boycott, but the interim Iraqi government and President Bush have said the election must go ahead.
Iraq's leading Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, gave his blessing to the list. He has been working to unite Iraq's majority Shiites ahead of the vote to ensure victory, plus include representatives from Iraq's other diverse communities. Shiites comprise 60 percent of Iraq's 26 million population.
The 228 candidates include independent Sunni Muslims, a Shiite Kurdish group, members of the Yazidis minority religious sect, and a Turkomen movement, among others. Also among them are members of the Iraqi National Congress, led by former exile and one-time Pentagon favorite Ahmad Chalabi.
"I think that this list is a patriotic list. We hope that Iraqi people will back this list," Sheik Fawaz al-Jarba, head of the powerful Sunni Shemar tribes in the northwestern city of Mosul, said at the end of the conference.
Yet there are divides. Separate candidate lists are being compiled by aides to President Ghazi al-Yawer and Prime Minister Ayad Allawi drawing some Shiites away from the ticket that the country's top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is overseeing, well-connected Shiite figures have said. The main Kurdish parties will contest the vote with their own unified list, Kurdish leaders have said.
The biggest wild card among the Shiites is firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. An aide said al-Sadr's movement had been invited to take part; he suggested the group refused because it wants to see how the vote plays out.
"If the elections results will be beneficial, we will have another chance to join the elections in the coming phases, and if their results were bad it will be recorded that we did not support the occupation's existence," said al-Sadr's representative in Beirut, Lebanon, Hassan al-Zarqani.
Al-Sadr's movement, which wields wide grassroots support among impoverished and young Shiites, has previously sent mixed messages about its role in the country's political process. There were signs that while al-Sadr and his top aides were not participating, the list had support of others of his followers.
The alliance includes the major Shiite political parties, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution and the Islamic Dawa Party. Both have strong links with Iran, a Shiite but non-Arab neighbor, something the Sadrists often use to question their rivals' Arab identity and commitment to Iraq's interests.
The election will be Iraq's first popular vote since Saddam Hussein's ouster. 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 Dec. 15, 2005.
Voting will be done by party list, meaning people will vote not for individual candidates but for coalitions like the one presented Thursday. The number of seats coalitions win will be determined by the percentage of the vote they get.
While the United States and top Iraqi leaders say the vote will go ahead, the vote's legitimacy will hinge on the action of Iraq's Sunni groups.
Major parties representing Iraq's 20 percent minority Sunnis have called for the vote's postponement because they say the country is not secure enough. Sunni clerics from the Association of Muslim Scholars urged Sunnis to boycott the election to protest last month's U.S.-led assault on the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.
The influential religious group reiterated its call for Sunnis to boycott the polls, describing as "madness" plans to hold them in January.
"The association's stance toward the elections is firm and unchanged we will not take a part in these elections because
no elections can be held under the pressure of the Americans and the
deteriorating security situation," said Sheik Mohamed Bashar Al-Faidhi, an association spokesman.
The Kurds, who are estimated to number between 15 percent and 20 percent of the population, are also expected to present their own list soon. They have enjoyed regional self-rule in the north since 1991.
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