Source: Asharq al-Awsat (Arabic language daily)
The Iraqi election campaign season opened last week against a background of dirty tricks, murder, corruption, blackmail and intimidation. While smiling politicians beamed down from scores of freshly-hung posters around Baghdad and the other main cities, what should have been a cause for celebration, as Iraqis ushered in a new era of freedom and democracy, has in fact descended into violence and anarchy. A free and fair Iraqi election on 7th March is an illusion.
Instead of seeking the support of ordinary voters for their political parties or policies, Iraq’s ruling elite seem determined to destroy rather than defeat their opponents. While the West must have some patience with a country that is re-discovering democracy after 50 years of dictatorship, the current situation is abhorrent and has cast a dark shadow over the legitimacy of the entire election process.
Politicians on both sides of the Atlantic were alarmed when the hybrid Justice and Accountability Committee in Baghdad announced in early January that it had decided to expel 511 secular and prominent politicians from the election. The reason given was that the committee had new evidence that all 511 were either criminals or had past associations with the banned Baath Party of Saddam Hussein. No evidence has been produced.
The Justice and Accountability Commission is run by Ahmed Chalabi and one of his close cronies, Ali al-Lami. Both have long-standing and close ties to Tehran and both are themselves candidates for the elections on March 7th. Both also have unsavoury backgrounds. It was no surprise then that the 511 people listed for exclusion from the electoral process were mostly vocal opponents of Iranian meddling in Iraq and vigorous political rivals of Chalabi and al-Lami.
One of the key figures named on the blacklist was the prominent Sunni political leader and secular politician Dr Saleh al-Mutlak, a member of the Iraqi parliament for the past four years. He was twice before cleared to stand for election and was one of the authors of the new Iraqi Constitution. He was a leading partner in a cross-party alliance led by Iyad Allawi, a secular and pro-western contender for the job as Iraq’s next Prime Minister. But Dr al-Mutlak has been a constant critic of Iran and it was widely suspected that his expulsion and the expulsion of the others by Chalabi and al-Lami, was at the direct request of Tehran.
There is no doubt that the Iranian regime is using all its power and influence in Iraq to disqualify from the electoral process anyone it sees as an opponent. Addressing his remarks to the US in his speech on Thursday 11th February, on the occasion of the anniversary of the Iranian revolution, President Ahmadinejad of Iran said, “The Iraqi Government and people are under heavy pressure to bring the Baathists back to power …Why do you want to impose the Baathists upon the oppressed people of Iraq … God willing you will not succeed.”
So, de-Baathification is only an excuse. That is why the disqualification of candidates is not limited only to Sunnis, but also involves some distinguished Shiite patriots who are members of the Ahrar political coalition led by Ayad Jamal al-Din, a prominent Iraqi Shiite cleric and thinker. Mr. Jamal al-Din and members of his proposed list of candidates for the elections emphasize that the most important problem facing Iraq today is the Iranian regime’s meddling in that country.
Such was the concern about the possible de-stabilising impact on the election process that US Vice President Joe Biden flew to Baghdad in late January, in an attempt to resolve this potentially explosive issue. At the time, his efforts, together with forceful representations from the European Parliament, seemed to have paid off. The Iraqi Appeal Court announced that they had quashed the ban by the Justice and Accountability Committee and that all 511 candidates could now stand for election.
This ruling infuriated the mullahs in Tehran and their pro-Iranian allies in Baghdad. The ink was barely dry on the Appeal Court’s judgement when senior aides of the Iraqi Prime Minister announced that it was “illegal and unconstitutional” and that the government had decided to over-rule their own judges.
So the descent into anarchy continues. Bombings and murder have become a familiar part of the election landscape. Only this week a candidate from Iyad Allawi’s party – Suha Abdul Jarallah, aged 36, was shot dead in the street, in the northern city of Mosul.
Having cleared the field of all political opponents, the current leadership now looks set to form a Shi'a-dominated pro-Iranian government following the 7th March polls, paving the way for the final acquiescence of Baghdad to the will of Tehran.
It is certainly not in the interests of other countries in the Gulf to see this happen or to see the fascist mullah regime in Iran emerge as the leading power in the region. But while the West continues to pour taxpayers’ cash into Iraq to help with the massive task of reconstruction, the shaky democratic foundations are already crumbling to dust and a bleak future beckons.