BAGHDAD: Iraq’s electoral commission chief said Friday he expects more candidates to be blacklisted from March parliament elections because of suspected ties to Saddam Hussein’s Sunni-led regime, an issue that has split the highest levels of Iraq’s government.
The rising political tensions have alarmed Washington and the White House has dispatched Vice President Joe Biden who arrived in Baghdad to tackle the issue, which Iraq’s Shiite-dominated government describes as an internal matter.
Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki’s government appeared Friday to be backing the body tasked with identifying hardcore supporters of Saddam’s outlawed Baath Party.
The development came just a day after President Jalal Talabani questioned whether the Accountability and Justice Committee has the authority to ban candidates.
The additional names, which could be added to the list as early as Saturday, will include military men who carried forged documents and people with criminal records, commission chief Faraj Al-Haidari said.
The proposed ban has worried US officials that such a move could undermine political stability and lead to an increase in violence ahead of the nationwide balloting March 7.
A leaked list with more than 500 names thought to be banned by the committee was printed in Iraqi newspapers on Thursday.
Al-Haidari declined to confirm whether that list was authentic or to discuss the number of candidates who so far could potentially be banned from running, but he said the names include members of Iraq’s various sects and ethnic groups. He says the number of Sunnis and Shiites is roughly equal.
“We informed the political parties of the names of those candidates that would be banned, and there are two choices for them: either replace the candidate or appeal to the court,” Al-Haidari said.
Reconciliation between Sunnis and Shiites has been a priority for the US, which worries a flare-up between Baghdad’s Shiite-dominated government and Sunnis who lost their political prominence following Saddam’s 2003 fall could destabilize the country.
Political tensions have been on the rise in recent months following accusations by Al-Maliki that Baathists were to blame for a series of attacks since last summer that targeted government sites in downtown Baghdad. Hundreds were killed and wounded in the explosions.
The US is concerned the blacklisting of candidates could undo Iraq’s security gains, possibly jeopardizing a timetable set by President Barack Obama to withdraw all but 50,000 troops by Aug. 31, 2010. The remaining US troops would leave Iraq by the end of 2011.
Biden was expected to arrive in Baghdad soon.
However, Ali Al-Dabbagh, Iraq’s government spokesman, said the banning of candidates is an internal matter.
“Their exclusion from the elections is a matter that is governed by the constitution and the laws regulating the work of the committee,” he said. “It is an internal affair that should be discussed by Iraqi political entities.”
Talabani, a Kurd, said Thursday he requested a ruling from the Higher Judicial Council on whether the vetting committee has the authority to ban candidates.
Al-Maliki, though, appeared Friday to be standing by the committee, telling Shiite tribal leaders during a meeting in southern Iraq that they should not support Baathists.
“Baathists are the ones who brought terrorism and created sectarian divisions among people,” Al-Maliki said.
An aide to radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr condemned US intervention in the upcoming election.
“The exclusion of criminal Baathists from the political process is a necessity, and this should have been done before now,” Sheikh Abdul-Hadi al-Mohammadawi, told worshippers in Kufa, 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Baghdad. “Those people should not be allowed to rejoin the political process.”
