 Sheikh Khalaf al-Alyan, chairman of the (Sunni) National Dialogue Council (NDC), has threatened to ignite civil war if matters do not return back to normal and they (the Sunnis) are not given their elections rights. He accused persons in the Higher Iraqi Elections Commission and in the (Shiite) Unified Iraqi Coalition that is led by Abdulaziz al-Hakim who is also leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution, of rigging the elections results and committing major violations. On his part, Dr. Hussein al-Hindawi, the Higher Elections Commission chairman, admitted that there were violations whose victims were the National Iraqi List that is led by Dr. Iyad Allawi.
| Looks like they're chosing up sides now. |
Al-Alyan's movement the NDC entered into an alliance with the People of Iraq Council that is led by Dr. Adnan al-Dulaymi and the Iraqi Islamic Party that is led by Hamid Abdal Muhsin and formed a broad Sunni coalition called Al-Tawafuq. He said, "We have informed the Commission of the violations that took place during the elections, especially in Baghdad. We also informed the US side, the United Nations, and the Arab League. Our stand is known: Either hold the elections again or change them to give us our rights."
| I suspect there might be a shred of truth to what he's hollering about. I still don't discount the NYT story on the Medes and the Persians shipping stuffed ballot boxes to Iraq. |
Speaking by telephone to "Asharq al-Awsat" yesterday, he said, "We are not going to let things go in the coming stage and there must be a solution. Either we obtain our rights of participation in the Assembly, as we deserve, or withdraw. We will not allow the formation of a national assembly and will not remain spectators or oppositionists but rest assured that it will turn into civil war, may God save us from its end. All the Iraqi nationalists will be in a resistance front against these tendencies (he meant the Shiite Coalition)."
| Now the question becomes whether they're going to actually engage in Armed Struggle™ to gain their putative rights. While I don't discount the NYT story, it's also possible it was a setup for just this routine. They're not real big on the concept of "loyal opposition," but even in an Arab country they need some sort of pretext. But they could also be making faces and jumping up and down in their inimitable Sunni manner to exact concessions that they had no chance for in the actual balloting. |
Al-Alyan added, "Our rights are known and we are convinced that the elections were rigged, especially in Baghdad where we had areas in the capital that were totally closed to us. We were excepting to exceed the Coalition by more than 300,000 votes. However, the result now is the Coalition exceeding us by 1 million votes and this is quite unreasonable. Our calculations were accurate and documented in the centers and from the first count. We do not accept any other result unless it tallies with the facts we know. We will not allow the formation of parliament or national government unless they give us back our rights, either by holding the elections again all over Iraq or in Baghdad. The important thing is to have our rights given back to us." |
