BAGHDAD, 17 December 2004 — More than 100 parties, blocs and independents will contest Iraq’s first free election in decades on Jan. 30, the Independent Electoral Commission said yesterday.
Updating previous figures, it said 73 singleparty lists were registered for the ballot, plus nine multi-party coalitions and 25 individuals running for a seat on their own.
The deadline for registration passed on Wednesday but full details of the candidates will not be published for some days, to allow for final amendments, a Commission spokesman said.
The 275-member National Assembly will oversee the drafting of a constitution over the next year and appoint a government. U.S.-backed interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi unveiled his candidacy for the elections on Wednesday, with his name at the top of a 200-strong alliance dubbed the Iraqi List, which also includes several ministers from his government.
Interim President Ghazi al-Yawar announced yesterday that he too he would contest the election.
The strongest alliance appears to be one headed by Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), who spent decades in exile in Iran.
With the blessing of Iraq’s most influential Shi’ite cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, it is expected to do well among the long-oppressed Shi’ite majority, mostly in the south.
Iraq will be treated as a single electoral district. Voters will choose a list and seats will be distributed to candidates on those lists according to the slate’s percentage of the vote. An election for the autonomous Kurdish parliament in the north will take place on the same day as the nationwide poll, as will elections to local assemblies for each Iraqi province.
The Electoral Commission said 14 parties had registered lists for the Kurdish ballot, in addition to one coalition.
The two main Kurdish parties, the KDP and PUK, which already dominate politics in the north, are expected to run on a joint list in the nationwide election.
In London, Iraq’s special envoy to Iraq of UN chief Kofi Annan, Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, promised that the elections will take place on time and be credible.
“I believe that, despite the challenges, the elections will be held on time, and that they will resonate positively with the Iraqi people and prepare the ground for the next phase,” he said after a meeting with Britain’s junior foreign minister for the Middle East, Baroness Elizabeth Symons.
“Of course intimidation is there, acts of violence are there, including acts of terrorism, which have impacted on the security environment. And the interim government is beefing-up its capability to maintain national security and law and order and to counter criminal acts of terror,” Qazi noted.
“We are confident that ... the elections will be held on schedule and the elections will be acceptable to the people of Iraq, not only just as a whole but also in the major areas of Iraq and by the major constituents of the Iraqi polity,” he said.
Qazi is the successor of Sergio Vieira de Mello, who was killed in August 2003 along with 21 other people, in an attack on UN offices in Baghdad. The United Nations since has reduced its presence there, Qazi is not based there and the dates of his travel are kept secret.
Security Tightened in Karbala
Police reinforcements and National Guards were deployed to the Iraqi city of Karbala yesterday, a day after a bomb blast killed 10 and wounded more than 30, including a senior Shi’ite cleric. Residents said extra checkpoints were set up overnight in the centre of the city, home to two shrines of special significance to Shi’ite Muslims, while more Iraqi National Guard units were drafted in on the city’s outskirts.
Wednesday’s bomb blast, which came ahead of evening prayers on the day Iraq’s election campaign officially began, appeared to target Abdul-Mehdi Al-Karbalai, a cleric close to Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, Iraq’s foremost Shi’ite authority.
Doctors said Karbalai was recovering in intensive care with extensive shrapnel wounds to his legs. Four of his bodyguards were killed in the blast, which struck as the cleric was walking from his office to the nearby Imam Hussein shrine.
Many of those wounded were shopkeepers and passers-by. The area around Karbala’s shrines, popular with pilgrims, is full of narrow streets packed with shops and street vendors. No one claimed responsibility, but the coincidence with the first day of campaigning read like a political message. Sistani has overseen the formation of a Shi’ite-led coalition to stand in the election.
The alliance is widely expected to emerge victorious, sealing Shi’ite political strength after decades of oppression under Saddam Hussein. Shi’ites make up about 60 percent of Iraq’s 26 million population, but despite their majority status have long held little political power. Many Sunni Arabs now fear the Jan. 30 election will bring their dominance of the country to an end.
Sistani has issued a religious edict calling on all Shi’ites to vote in the poll, a move likely to favor his coalition. Wednesday’s bomb appeared an attempt to intimidate not only the Shi’ite clergy, but any potential voters.
But people in Karbala said yesterday they would not be threatened or deterred by violence. “The election has to be held on time. It is the people’s wish,” said Ali Hammadi, 45, a taxi driver. “Terrorist acts in Karbala and other cities will only make us tougher and more determined to vote.”
Standing at the gates of the school where she teaches, Nawal Hayder, 35, said she will vote whatever the security situation. “These attacks will not stop us from voting, elections are the best solution for our problems,” she said.
US and Iraqi authorities have warned of a surge in violence in the run-up to the election.
Yesterday in Baghdad, a senior official in the Communications Ministry was assassinated as he was driving to work, the latest in a string of killings of senior government aides. Police chiefs have also frequently been targeted.
At the announcement of the Sistani-backed coalition in Baghdad last week, officials were reluctant to name the top candidates for fear of putting lives at risk. At least one official, from Iraq’s Hezbollah party, has been killed since their candidacy was revealed. The Sunni minority, dominant under Saddam, is suspicious of Shi’ite links with Shi’ite Iran.
