BAGHDAD, 14 December 2005 — More than 1,000 Sunni scholars yesterday issued a fatwa, urging members of the minority to vote in Thursday’s national elections as Iraqi emigrants around the world began voting. Their call came as four US Army soldiers were killed in a roadside bombing northwest of Baghdad and a prominent Sunni Arab candidate was murdered.
The US soldiers were assigned to Task Force Baghdad which handles security in the capital and the surrounding area. Their deaths brought to at least 2,149 the number of US service members killed since the start of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
In Thursday’s election, Sunni Arabs are expected to turn out in large numbers after most of them boycotted the landmark Jan. 30 poll. “We call upon all the Iraqi people, and this is a fatwa from more than 1,000 Iraqi scholars who are urging Iraqis to vote,” Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Ghafour Al-Samaraie said. He heads the Sunni Endowment, the government agency in charge of maintaining Sunni mosques and shrines.
Iraqi insurgent groups have in recent days also backed away from the threats they used to keep Sunni Arabs away from the Jan. 30 election for an interim Parliament, and the Oct. 15 referendum on the constitution. An Iraqi militant group yesterday told its fighters not to attack polling stations to avoid killing civilians, according to a statement published in the group’s name on the Internet.
The Islamic Army in Iraq stressed the move did not mean it supported the political process and it vowed to continue attacking foreign and Iraqi security forces. Last week, the group claimed to have killed the US hostage Ronald Allen Schulz.
It came one day after Al-Qaeda in Iraq and four other Islamic groups denounced the elections as a “satanic project” and said that “to engage in the so-called political process” violates “the legitimate policy approved by God.
In Ramadi, west of Baghdad, police said gunmen killed Mezher Al-Dulaimi while he was filling up his car at a gas station. Dulaimi was a candidate with a regional Sunni Arab party and had participated at a recent conference in Cairo, attended by representatives of the country’s major factions.
The Iraqi Islamic Party, the largest Sunni Arab political group, warned the killing was a sign violence could still mar the elections. “The terrorist acts against the nominees have increased, the situation is getting worse day after day,” said Ayad Al-Samarrai, deputy director general of the party. “We expect more attacks against nominees and expect more problems.”
A top Sunni Arab politician, Adnan Al-Dulaimi, said it aimed at preventing the minority from voting in large numbers.
A roadside bomb targeted the convoy of Sheikh Jalal Eddin Al-Sagheer, a Shiite member of the National Assembly who was elected with the governing United Iraqi Alliance. The Iraqi Army said the explosion in Latifiyah, about 30 km south of Baghdad, damaged one of the vehicles.
Iraqi emigrants came to polling stations around the world to vote, leaving with ink-stained fingers and hope for the violence-torn country many fled during Saddam Hussein’s regime.
Voting abroad began first in Australia, where up to 20,000 registered Iraqi voters live. They are part of a group of 1.5 million voters living outside Iraq who will cast ballots at polling centers in 15 countries, including the United States, Canada and the Netherlands.
The expatriates will help elect the 275-member National Assembly, which will legislate in the coming four years and choose the first fully constitutional government in Iraq since the collapse of Saddam’s rule in 2003.
Campaign posters dotted polling stations across Europe, most promoting Iyad Allawi, a former prime minister, and deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi.
