Iraqi nation closing ranks as vote nears

By: Hamoud Kufi

BAGHDAD, Iraq: Iraqis, under the supervision of Al-Marjaiyah Ad-Diniyah, has closed ranks and generated a cohesive list of candidates for the parliamentary elections scheduled for January 30.

The list of candidates, called the United Iraqi Alliance, has been approved by Ayatullah Ali As-Sistani, but he was not involved in its selection, a member of the committee that drew up the list said.

“This is an historic moment,” Hussein Ash-Shahristani, a former nuclear scientist imprisoned by Saddam and once tipped to become Iraq's interim prime minister, told Reuters. “This is the birth of a new, democratic and just Iraq.”

According to him the names of the 240 candidates will be released later this week.

The nationwide election will choose a 275-member National Assembly, which in turn will name a new government and appoint the body that writes Iraq's new constitution. Voters will be asked to select an entire slate, and seats in the National Assembly will be distributed proportionate to each slate's share of the total vote.

The United Iraqi Alliance's slate underscores the risks of identity politics in the country. It pointedly includes candidates from the country's other sects and ethnic Kurdish and Turkmen populations.

The 240 names on the United Iraqi Alliance list are drawn from a mix of parties. Independent candidates will account for half of the slate.

The two main parties on the slate are the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) and Dawa. It also includes the Iraqi National Congress, the National Democratic Party, and the chief of the Shamar, one of Iraq's most powerful Sunni Arab tribes, headed by the uncle of Iraq's interim president.

“It is a truly national alliance, it is not a Shiite list,” said Shahristani. “We tried to include as many groups from various communities as possible.

Sistani put together a six-person committee headed by Shahristani that spent nearly two months negotiating with parties and groups to draw up the alliance.

Shahristani said Ayatullah Sistani was “very happy with the outcome”, but he stressed Sistani had had no veto over the names and groups drafted in.

END