Efforts to de-baathify Iraq elections bag more Shiites than Sunnis

[Winehole23]

Iraq list of excluded candidates has more Shi'ites




By Suadad al-Salhy Suadad Al-salhy – Wed Jan 20, 1:08 pm ET


BAGHDAD (Reuters) – More Shi'ite candidates than Sunnis have been barred from Iraq's election because of links to Saddam Hussein's Baath party, politicians said on Wednesday, potentially defusing a row that threatened to reopen sectarian wounds.


A decision by a panel to ban 511 candidates under a law outlawing the Baath party outraged many Sunnis, who dominated Iraq for more than two decades under Saddam, and raised fears the legitimacy of the March 7 election could be undermined.


The parliamentary election is a test of Iraq's growing stability as violence starts to fade and U.S. troops prepare to end combat operations in August and withdraw by end-2011. Sunni resentment could potentially fuel a lingering insurgency.

But two-thirds of the list handed to electoral authorities by the Justice and Accountability Commission was composed of Shi'ites, according to a copy received by Reuters. The list appeared weighted more against secular alliances than Sunnis.


"This is just a general massacre of democracy," said Hashim al-Habubi, a member of Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani's Iraq Unity coalition, which includes prominent Sunni tribal leaders.


"The lists are indiscriminate, not sectarian or secular or Islamist. It's just a message for the Baathists that this is not the time to return. Tensions eased after everyone saw these lists."


The Baath party is illegal under Iraq's cons ution. The panel that drew up the lists of banned candidates replaced a "de-Baathification" committee set up by U.S. administrators to purge Saddam loyalists after the 2003 invasion.


But two of the panel's most prominent members are also candidates in the election for the Iraqi National Alliance, a coalition dominated by the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (ISCI), an openly religious Shi'ite party formed in Iran.


That gave rise to su ions it was being used by factions in Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government to marginalize Sunnis ahead of the vote.


Others believe it deliberately targeted secular rivals who had been expected to perform well against the overtly Islamist parties that have dominated Iraq since the invasion.


"They used this as part of their electoral campaign. This is not a wise decision," said Maison al-Damiloji, a secular lawmaker from the Iraqiya alliance of former prime minister Iyad Allawi, a secular Shi'ite.


The list included 30 or so candidates from Maliki's State of Law coalition and around 20 from ISCI's Iraqi National Alliance.


The secular coalitions fared worse. Allawi's Iraqi Unity had 72 candidates on the list while Bolani's coalition had 67 of its candidates excluded.
Banned candidates can appeal to a special seven-judge panel.

[symple19]

I would be far more worried had this list been weighed down with Sunnis.

Malaki's government has been doing a fair job of walking a shrinking tightrope, but having active candidates on the panel is a definite mistake. Conflict of interest and all that...

The growing pains continue, but the more they argue and play politics, the less they resort to blowing each other (and us) up.

[Winehole23]

My concern is more that they will start blowing each other up in earnest before we can honorably withdraw.

[symple19]

My concern is more that they will start blowing each other up in earnest before we can honorably withdraw.

It's quite possible they're just waiting for us to leave. It's also quite possible that they're learning how to each other over with paper instead of bombs.

We just won't know until we pull most of our combat guys out. All I can really say is that I'm cautiously optimistic

[RandomGuy]

The de-baathification has gone on quite long enough.

You cannot disenfranchise the Sunnis and expect them to participate in the process.

At some point, the Shia Iraqis will have to hold their noses and accept that people that they might not like might actually want to participate in the political process.

[RandomGuy]

My concern is more that they will start blowing each other up in earnest before we can honorably withdraw.

That might happen. Hopefully we will have the good sense to stay out of it if it does.

I could definitely see a regional war happening as Iran steps in and tries to assert its interests and the Arabs not liking that much, stepping in to counter. That is the stuff that keeps quite a few people awake at night.