BAGHDAD, December 28 (IslamOnline.net) - Iraqi Shiites and Sunnis hit out Tuesday, December 28, at US media reports that the US administration was mulling to set aside parliamentary seats and cabinet portfolios to the Sunnis by “playing with the end result” of the January 30 elections.

“The US administration can’t appoint any one in the yet-to-be-elected National Assembly (parliament),” Haitham Al-Hussani, the spokesman for the Shiite Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) told IslamOnline.net.

“Only the Iraqi people will choose their representatives through fair and democratic elections.”

The New York Times reported on Sunday, December 26, that the US administration had raised the idea with Iraqi leaders, including Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani.

“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 condition of anonymity.

Iraqi pundits said that the US is deeply concerned about Iran’s influence on the Iraqi Shiite parities, which has prompted Washington to seek a “parliamentary quota” for the Sunnis.

Hussani said people cannot buy this talk of allocating some seats in the parliament to a certain party or community.

Iraq’s major Shiite groups unveiled on December 9 a unified list of 228 candidates to vie in the general elections, with the absence of anti-occupation firebrand young leader Muqtada Al-Sadr.

Top Shiite scholars, including Sistani himself, have threatened to withhold support for the interim government if the elections were postponed.

Ammar Wajih Zinulabidine, the media officer of the major Sunni Islamic Party, said the reported US plans are not a panacea to the current crisis.

“The proposed quota system only offers a temporary solution to the current communal standoff but it abounds with minuses,” he told IOL.

“The Americans, in addition, will be deceiving themselves if they think that granting the Sunni boycotters some seats in the parliament will help curb the unabated resistance.”

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 under the current deteriorating security situation.

The Islamic Party has also decided to boycott the January vote.

“We don’t believe in the communal quotas proposed by Washington. It is not a proper way to reach out to our people,” added Zinulabidine.

Ismail Zayer, the spokesman for the Iraqiyon (Arabic for Iraqis) Group led by interim Iraqi President Ghazi Al-Yawer, said the US plan is an “illegal” interference in the country’s internal affairs.

“The New York Times report is nothing but ideas raised by the US administration,” he told IOL.

Fareed Iyar, the spokesman for the Iraqi electoral commission, said the January elections are governed by both Iraqi and United Nations laws.

“The Iraqi people wouldn’t accept seeing their representatives handpicked by the Americans,” he said.

US and Iraqi officials have warned of a surge of attacks in the run up to the January 30 elections, which will pick a 275-member Iraqi parliament. The elected body will be assigned to draft Iraq's post-Saddam Hussein constitution.