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An Iraqi electoral worker registers the number allocated to political parties taking part in the elections next year.
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CAIRO,
December 26 (IslamOnline.net) - The US administration is proposing to
grant Iraq's Sunnis a number of portfolios and high-profile posts in
the future Iraqi government to avoid alienating them, a leading US
newspaper reported Sunday, December 26.
The
administration also raised with Iraqi officials the possibility of
adding some of the top Sunni vote-getters in the general elections,
due on 30 January, to the 275-member parliament even if they lose to
non-Sunni candidates, according to The New York Times.
“There's
a willingness to play with the end result - not changing the numbers,
but maybe guaranteeing that a certain number of seats go to Sunni
areas even if their candidates did not receive a certain percentage of
the vote,” an administration official told The Times on
conditions of anonymity.
Officials
admitted that it would be difficult to add Sunni candidates to the
future legislature, but said it would be necessary to avoid the Sunni
estrangement, said The Times.
The
Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS), the highest Sunni religious
authority in Iraq, called for a boycott of the vote, citing the
impossibility of organizing fair elections held under current
deteriorating conditions.
The
Islamic Party, a major Sunni political player, and other smaller
groups have signaled readiness to vie in the elections, leaving most
Sunnis caught in the dilemma of to
vote or not to vote .
Iraqis
will choose a 275-member assembly on January 30, which will write a
permanent constitution.
If
adopted in a referendum next year, the constitution would form the
legal basis for another general elections to be held by December,
2005.
Shiite
Concerns
A
western diplomat said the issue was already raised with an aide to
Iraq's most respectable Shiite scholar Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani,
The Times said.
He
said Shiite politicians were also concerned that a massive elections
victory by the Shiites, effectively shutting Iraqi Sunnis out of
power, could trigger more problems in the war-torn country.
It
was not known whether interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allaw had been
consulted on the issue.
Iraq’s
major Shiite groups unveiled Thursday, December 9, a much-talked-about
unified list of 228 candidates to vie in the general elections, with
the absence of anti-occupation young Shiite leader Muqtada Al-Sadr.
The
United Iraqi Alliance, backed by Al-Sistani, includes the Supreme
Council for the Islamic Revolution, the Islamic Dawa Party and the
Iraqi National Congress, led by one-time Pentagon favorite Ahmad
Chalabi.
Top
Shiite scholars, including Sistani himself, have threatened to
withhold support for the interim government if the elections were
postponed.
Representatives
of several Iraqi parties and leading political figures have been
campaigning for a six-month delay of the vote over the increasing
deteriorating security conditions.
UN
Iraqi envoy Lakhdar Brahimi warned that holding the elections would be
impossible unless “first and foremost security improves.”
Mohammad
Al-Askari, an Iraqi military and political Iraqi expert, told
IslamOnline.net on Tuesday, November 30, that Shiites believe it is
high time they ’dominated
the countrys political landscape after years of
marginalization under the reign of ousted president Saddam Hussein.
