Baghdad, February 14: A political coalition led by one of the Iraqi prime minister’s fiercest critics has temporarily halted its campaign for next month’s parliamentary elections after a number of its candidates were barred from running.
Spokesman Haydar Al-Mulla said Saturday the Iraqi National Movement suspended campaigning for three days while it attempts to negotiate the return of its candidates. Hundreds have been barred from contesting the March 7 vote because of suspicions they had ties to Saddam Hussein’s regime.
The ban is seen as an attempt by Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki’s Shiite-dominated government to target Sunnis. One of the Iraqi National Movement’s leaders, Sunni lawmaker Salah Al-Mutlaq, has been critical of Al-Maliki and is on the blacklist.
Iraqi officials confirmed on Saturday that appeals by prominent Sunni politicians against a move to ban them from next month’s election had failed, opening the door to sectarian recriminations that could mar the vote.
Many Iraqi Sunnis are alarmed by a campaign by the government against people accused of links to Saddam Hussein’s Baath party, and a decision by a panel to ban almost 500 candidates because of Baathist links.
The controversy has threatened to reopen old wounds just when the sectarian slaughter triggered by the 2003 US invasion has begun to fade and Iraq has started to attract multibillion-dollar investments from global oil firms.
Usama Al-Ani, deputy head of the independent electoral commission, or IHEC, said the agency had received a formal notification from an appeals panel that only 26 appeals by banned candidates had been successful.
One hundred and forty-five appeals were rejected, he said. Other candidates had been voluntarily replaced by their parties.
“Among those whose appeals were rejected were Saleh Al-Mutlaq and Dhafer Al-Ani,” said Ani, referring to two Sunni politicians who are among the most prominent Sunnis in Iraq.
The furor over the banned candidates has come to dominate the campaign for the March 7 parliamentary election, which kicked off officially on Friday.
The election will determine who runs Iraq as US troops prepare to withdraw by the end of 2011.
——Agencies