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Iraq
Iraq election: boycott or not?
2021-07-30
[RUDAW.NET] In the past two weeks, five parties have dropped out of Iraq’s election race. Shiite, Sunni, non-sectarian — all sides are questioning the legitimacy of the vote in an environment where powerful militias operate outside government control, activists and elections candidates are threatened, and the electoral commission and political elites are accused of fraud.

Will the election go ahead, is the question on everyone’s lips.

The Sadrist movement was the first to announce its withdrawal when its leader, prominent Shiite holy man Moqtada Tater al-Sadr
...hereditary Iraqi holy man and leader of a political movement in Iraq. He had his hereditary rival, al-Khoei, assassinated only a few hours after the holy rival's appearance out of exile in 2003. Formerly an Iranian catspaw, lately he's gagged over some of their more outlandish antics, then went back to catspawry...
, declared he will not run. "I announce that I am withdrawing my hand from all those who are working with this government, the current and the upcoming, even if they had allegiance to us, the family of Sadr," Sadr said in a televised speech.

Sadr does not hold elected position himself, but he leads the Sairoon coalition, parliament’s largest bloc.

The Iraqi Communist Party joined the Sadrist movement, calling on the masses not to vote because the elections lack the "slightest degree of integrity."

In the 2018 election, the Communist Party allied with Sairoon, collectively securing 54 seats.

On Wednesday, the Iraqi Platform, led by former prime minister Ayad Allawi, announced they too were dropping out of the race. A similar decision was made by the National Dialogue Front led by Sunni leader Salih al-Mutlaq.

Wael Abdel Latif, deputy head of the Iraqi Platform party, told Rudaw English on Thursday that with the presence of armed factions threatening the lives of activists, there is no room for fair elections. The electoral law in its current form may lead to internal war between those gangs, he added.

"The parties have the intention of fraud, and there are four million electoral cards that have been forged in advance. The state will not be able to confront the armed factions, even the United Nations
...an idea whose time has gone...
 will not be able to monitor every electoral center in the country," Latif said.

Allawi, who headed the Iraqi government in 2004 — 2005, ran in the 2018 parliamentary elections as head of the National Coalition and won 21 of parliament’s 329 seats.

"We are fully convinced that these elections will be the worst elections in Iraq after 2003," Latif added.

The Iraqi National House, a new party formed by a group of Tishreen (October movement) protesters, also withdrew from the elections for the same reasons.

Hussain al-Gharabi, the party's front man, told Rudaw English on Thursday that despite government assurances about the elections, it is clear that the ruling political parties have no intention of creating a democratic environment for the vote.

"The conditions for holding the elections are not met, so the party decided to boycott, especially with the presence of uncontrolled weapons and impunity for killers of activists," Gharabi said.
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Iraq
Iraq to reinstate officers from Saddams army
2010-02-26
[Al Arabiya Latest] More than 20,000 army officers who served under deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein are to be reinstated, a defense ministry spokesman said on Thursday, as Iraq's Sunni block decided to end elections boycott. "Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki gave his consent to reinstate 20,400 officers" who had made a request, Mohammad al-Askari said.
They did such a good job fighting us off the army really feels like it needs them...
The United States dissolved Saddam's 450,000-strong army shortly after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

Iraq's leading Sunni Arab political bloc meanwhile announced that it will take part in next month's general election and urged its followers to turn out in numbers. The about-face by the National Dialogue Front (NDF) comes just five days after it said it was withdrawing from the vote, only the second parliamentary poll since the invasion.

"We call on the Iraqi people to vote massively to avoid fraud, despite our reservations concerning the electoral process," Saleh al-Mutlak, a Sunni MP who has been barred from standing for re-election on the grounds of alleged links to the Baath party of now executed dictator Saddam Hussein, told AFP.

Mutlak, who was among 456 candidates who were barred, highlighted "the exclusion of candidates, which is hurting the legitimacy of the election."

On Saturday, the NDF said that its 175 candidates would no longer stand in protest at what it said was Iranian interference in the poll. However, electoral authorities told AFP the boycott was largely symbolic and had no official status because the deadline for parties to withdraw had passed and ballot papers had already been printed.

Mutlak was the main Sunni figure in Shiite former premier Iyad Allawi's secular Iraqiya list. His disqualification is a setback for Allawi's bid to unseat Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and hopes for reconciliation.

"We are concerned that the situation will deteriorate in the event that Iraqiya does not win, and we are sure that Iraqiya will not win if we do not participate," Mutlak said.
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Iraq
Sunni bloc to boycott Iraq's national elections
2010-02-21
[Al Arabiya Latest] A prominent Sunni Muslim politician banned from running in Iraq's parliamentary vote next month has withdrawn his party from the ballot, a spokesman said on Saturday, calling on others to join the boycott.
Billiant. Simply brilliant. If you don't run you won't win, but I guess you won't suffer a humiliating loss, either.
Just hands the Shi'a crazies power for the next five years. Brilliant indeed ...
Iraq's once-dominant minority Sunnis largely shunned the national vote in 2005, fuelling a bloody insurgency that U.S. and Iraqi officials hope Sunni participation in the coming election will help end.

The National Dialogue Front led by Saleh al-Mutlak, a leading Sunni MP banned from the election on account of links to the Baath Party of Saddam Hussein, confirmed its candidates would not contest the poll.

"After the remarks of General Ray Odierno andChristopher Hill (U.S. ambassador to Baghdad) that the Justice and Accountability Committee (JAC) was being run by al-Quds forces (from Iran), the National Dialogue Front cannot continue in a political process run by a foreign agenda," the group's spokesman Haider al-Mullah told reporters in Baghdad. "The National Dialogue Front therefore announces its stance is to boycott the forthcoming election and the invitation is open to other political entities to take the same stance."

Mutlak was the number two candidate on former Shiite premier Allawi's broad-based Iraqiya coalition until the JAC barred the prominent Sunni MP from standing for office.

The JAC is run by former Shiite deputy prime minister Ahmed Chalabi and his close ally Ali al-Allami, who spent a year in a U.S.-run jail in Iraq.

While in Washington on Tuesday, General Odierno, the top US military officer in Iraq, said Chalabi and Allami had ties to the Quds force and "clearly are influenced by Iran."

"We have direct intelligence that tells us that," the commander told an audience at the Institute for the Study of War in the US capital.

Odierno said Chalabi and Allami have had several meetings in Iran with a close aide to the commander of the Quds, the covert operations arm of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards.

"And we believe they're absolutely involved in influencing the outcome of the election. And it's concerning that they've been able to do that over time," Odierno said, apparently referring to the Tehran regime.

The dispute over who can stand in the March 7 election has raised sectarian tensions and alarmed Washington, which views the polls as a crucial precursor to a complete military withdrawal by the end of 2011.
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Iraq
Iranian Democracy in Iraq!
2010-01-20
[Asharq al-Aswat] It seems that the process of democratization in Iraq is evolving quickly; however, without doubt, it is evolving in the wrong direction. What does it mean when the Debathification commission, or what is now known as the Justice and Accountability Commission, is trying to break up all Iraqi political blocs that disagree with the Iranian program in Iraq, or oppose Tehran's allies in Iraq who have power and authority, before the upcoming Iraqi elections? The accusation that is always on hand is affiliation to the Baath party or sympathizing with it, call it what you like. Or [the commission just] carries out arrests and raids [against them].

After head of the National Dialogue Front Saleh al Mutlak and his bloc was targeted and banned from taking part in the forthcoming Iraqi elections on the pretext of sympathizing with the Baathists, (and this was said to be based on a joke between Mutlak and someone else), around 500 Iraqi figures were also banned [from participating in the forthcoming elections] including the Iraqi Defense Minister Abdul Qader Obaidi. Dr. Iyad Allawi considers this political, and expansion of the circle of revenge, as this will lead to a state of chaos, not a state of law.

Therefore, when we say that the process of democratization in Iraq is evolving quickly but in the wrong direction [it is because] it is clear to us today that the Debathification commission, or the Justice and Accountability Commission, has come to resemble Iran's Guardian Council, which approves who is eligible to run in Iranian presidential elections. The difference is that the Iranian Guardian Council says whose nomination it accepts on an individual basis, whereas the Iraqi Commission is more comprehensive as its task is to tighten the grip on political blocs as well as on Iraqi political figures. It would have been easier for the Debathification commission, or whatever it's called, to say who can run in the upcoming elections instead of [letting] the list of banned [candidates] accused of being affiliated or sympathizing with the Baathists in Iraq reach a number that may exceed thousands.

This is not sarcasm but the truth. The ongoing process of banning Iraqi entities and figures has become barefaced political maneuvering, and widening of the circle of revenge and deepening the authority of a group at the expense of all Iraqi components in the name of democratization. This kind of democracy only resembles the kind of distorted democracy that we are seeing in Iran; the results of which have led to oppression of the people, killing and imprisonment of women not to mention men and youth, and the accusation of being an agent for Israel and the West that is cast against anyone who challenges the authority. [They are also accused of] being against God and religion if they go against the instruction of the Supreme Guide to the extent that in Iran it is now against the law to use mobile phones or email to demonstrate opposition against Ahmedinejad's regime. The difference between the Guardian Council and the Justice and Accountability Commission, which is entrusted with uprooting Baathism, is that the latter wants to learn from the mistakes made in Iran by carrying out pre-emptive operations before the upcoming Iraqi elections to hunt down those who oppose Iran's influential allies in Iraq today before they succeed at the ballot box, which would make the process of removing them more difficult. Otherwise, Iran's allies in Iraq would be forced to pursue their opponents on the streets just as the Mullahs are doing today to the opposition in Iran.
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Iraq
Iraq urges vote ban for Sunni leader, parties
2010-01-09
[Al Arabiya Latest] Fifteen political parties, including that of a prominent Sunni leader, should be barred from Iraq's March 7 election because of alleged ties to Saddam Hussein's outlawed Baath Party, a panel has found.

The panel's recommendation, which was not final and whose legitimacy was immediately disputed, could hamper attempts to unify the fractious nation after years of sectarian violence as it heads toward the key parliamentary vote Washington hopes will bring stability before its troop withdrawal.

The Justice and Accountability Commission, an independent body that aims in part to ensure the Baath party does not return to public life, said on Thursday that Saleh al-Mutlaq's National Dialogue Front should not be allowed to participate in the vote.

The recommendation of the commission, which replaced Iraq's de-Baathification Committee, will be referred to the electoral commission, IHEC, for a decision, and Iraq's courts will have the final say.

"The committee asked IHEC to ban 15 parties from participating, including the National Dialogue Front ... because its leaders and its founders come under the process of de-Baathification," said Ali al-Lami, a commission official. Mutlaq, who is popular among the Sunni minority that dominated Iraq under Saddam, condemned the edict as politically motivated and said it would be appealed in the federal courts.

"It is an absurdity committed by the de-Baathification committee," Mutlaq told Reuters. "It proves again that there is no real basis for any democratic process in Iraq."

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Iraq
Iraq PM aims to ease security fears
2009-06-28
Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, has attempted to ease concerns that a wave of violence will follow the pullback of US combat troops from cities and major towns. More than 250 people have been killed in a series of attacks in recent days, raising fears that Iraqi security forces will struggle to cope after the June 30 withdrawal.

But al-Maliki said that the planned move showed that Iraqi institutions were ready to ensure the safety of their own people and would be celebrated as "victory day". "We are on the threshold of a new phase that will bolster Iraq's sovereignty," he said on Saturday. "It is a message to the world that we are now able to safeguard our security and administer our internal affairs."

Al-Maliki has blamed the recent violence on fighters from al-Qaeda in Iraq, but said they would not be successful if the country remained united. He made the remarks as parliament met to debate the reasons for the apparently deteriorating security situation.

Tariq al-Hashimi, Iraq's Sunni vice-president, echoed the concerns of many Iraqis when he urged "our people to be more cautious and avoid, whenever possible, crowded areas unless there is something important".

In a statement posted on his website on Saturday, al-Hashimi urged Iraqi security forces to increase their presence in public areas, markets and mosques.

Saleh al-Mutlaq, a Sunni member of the Iraqi parliament and the leader of the Iraqi National Dialogue Front, told Al Jazeera: "Iraqis have a right to be scared, they know very well that the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq will leave a political vacuum in the country. This is an irresponsible withdrawal from Iraq, because there is not much change in the political process or the American policy in Iraq adopted by the previous US administration.

"Al-Maliki is not aware of the consequences after the American troops leave the country, he wants to deliver what the Iraqis want - an end to the occupation."

Ayad Allawi, a former Iraqi prime minister, said that the surge in violence was likely to continue unless "drastic measures" were taken. "Always we anticipated that once there was a drawdown in forces ... the Iraqi institutions - military and police - are not capable of shouldering the responsibility. Nor will the political landscape in the country encourage stability," he told Al Jazeera.

US forces are also to leave all cities and major towns of Iraq by the end of June, including Mosul and Kirkuk, where levels of violence remain persistently high.

A "small number" of US troops would be left in some Iraqi cities after the June 30 deadline at so-called Joint Security Stations to train and advise local security forces, a military spokesman said. The US military will also continue to provide intelligence and air support to Iraqi security forces.
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Iraq
Iraqi authorities launch manhunt for MP accused in Parliament bombing
2009-02-26
Iraqi authorities on Wednesday launched a manhunt for an MP accused of involvement in an April 2007 bombing of Parliament after his immunity was lifted and he was prevented from fleeing to Jordan. "Mohammad al-Daini is on the run but we are after him because the arrest warrant is now valid," the spokesman for Baghdad's military security command, General Qassem Atta, told AFP.

MPs voted to lift Daini's parliamentary immunity on Wednesday, just hours after he was barred from flying out to Amman from Baghdad airport, where he was refused an exit stamp at passport control.

He was trying to leave for Amman on a Royal Jordanian flight together with four other MPs, a security source at the airport said. The plane took off without the MPs, as the other four stayed behind in solidarity with Daini, the source added.

Daini, a Sunni Arab who has insisted on his innocence, was not arrested at the airport as he still had parliamentary immunity at the time. On Monday, the deputy dismissed charges of having ordered the bombing which killed eight people including a fellow MP, as a politically motivated "fabrication" due to his party's defense of human rights. "We have been disclosing serious violations of human rights in Iraqi prisons," Daini, a member of the National Dialogue Front. "We knew there would be a price to pay ... but we didn't expect it to go this far, to go beyond all constitutional and legal norms," he said. "These are fabrications ... It was clear they were tortured when they were shown on television," the MP said, referring to video recordings of two of his bodyguards confessing to being involved in the suicide bombing.

The MP, an ex-member of an elite Saddamist force, was accused on Sunday of ordering the bombing two years ago in the Parliament's canteen.
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Iraq
Iraqi lawmaker denies bomb, murder allegations
2009-02-24
A Sunni politician accused of orchestrating a 2007 suicide attack on the Iraqi parliament and a host of other bombings and gangland-style killings said on Monday the allegations were false.

Mohammed al-Daini, a member of the Iraqi National Dialogue Front, said allegations made against him by the Shiite Muslim-led government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki were revenge for criticism he made of the treatment of prisoners.

" The suicide bomber entered with an authorization paper from Mohammed al-Daini and blew himself up at the parliament "
Riad Ibrahim al-Daini
Reporters were shown the confessions--also broadcast on Iraqi television--by a nephew and a security guard of the accused MP who said they had carried out several attacks for Daini.

"The suicide bomber entered with an authorization paper from Mohammed al-Daini and blew himself up at the parliament," nephew Riad Ibrahim al-Daini said on the video, adding that he had taken the assailant to the scene. Al-Daini said filmed confessions were extracted by force. "The physical and psychological torture which those people were subjected to was so obvious," Daini told a news conference. "We knew there would be a price to pay for supporting the innocent, but we did not expect the exaggerated actions taking place that are beyond all legal and constitutional limits."

Military spokesman Qassim Moussawi said authorities were waiting for the courts to issue an arrest warrant for Daini, after which they would ask parliament to lift his immunity.

A warrant already had been issued for his brother, Ahmed al-Daini, on terrorism charges, Moussawi told Reuters on Monday. "We have enough evidence to incriminate Mohammed al-Daini," Moussawi said.
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Iraq
MP Daini guaranteed immunity by official order
2009-02-23
Aswat al-Iraq: Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Sunday ordered that MP Mohammed al-Dayni's immunity be guaranteed, ruling out attempts by security forces to arrest the parliamentarian, according to Maliki's media advisor. "The issue will be left to the judiciary and the Parliament," Yaseen Majeed told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. "What has been reported by some media that Iraqi security forces surrounded al-Rasheed Hotel to arrest Dayni is completely groundless," Majeed added.

Dayni belongs to the National Dialogue Front (NDF), which is headed by MP Saleh al-Motlaq and has 11 seats in the 275-member Parliament.

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Iraq
Iraq seeks arrest of MP accused in parliament bombing
2009-02-23
A Sunni Muslim MP in Iraq was accused Sunday of ordering an April 2007 suicide bombing in the parliament canteen that killed eight people including a fellow lawmaker. Major General Qassem Atta, spokesman for Baghdad's military security command, made the charge against Mohammed al-Daini, a member of the National Dialogue Front, at a press conference.

" The suicide bomber entered with an authorisation paper from Mohammed al-Daini and blew himself up at the parliament "
Riad al Daini, video confession
Reporters were shown video confessions -- also broadcast on Iraqi television -- by a nephew and a security guard of the accused MP who said they had carried out several attacks for Daini.

"The suicide bomber entered with an authorisation paper from Mohammed al-Daini and blew himself up at the parliament," nephew Riad Ibrahim al-Daini said on the video, adding that he had taken the assailant to the scene.

The nephew said he had carried out "dozens of crimes, including murders... at the orders of Mohammed al-Daini."

Atta told reporters in downtown Baghdad's Green Zone where the Iraqi government is based and parliament is also located that the MP's immunity had not yet been lifted, but a request has been made to the judicial authorities.

But measures have been taken "to prevent him from travelling abroad," said the spokesman.

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Iraq
10 wanted men, 3 bombers arrested near Mosul
2009-01-22
Aswat al-Iraq: Iraqi army forces on Wednesday arrested 13 wanted persons, including three suicide bombers, west of Mosul city. "Three suicide bombers wearing explosives belts were arrested near al-Hajj Ali village, al-Qayara district (60 km south of Mosul city)," a source from Ninewa's Operation Command told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. Earlier this week, a suicide bomber detonated himself inside the guesthouse of the deputy head of the Iraqi National Dialogue Front (NDF), Hassan al-Zaidan, in al-Qayara district, killing the parliamentarian and wounding two policemen. Strict security measures are currently in place in al-Hajj Ali village, where a wake is currently being held.
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Iraq
Suicide bomber kills deputy head of Iraqi Sunni party
2009-01-19
A suicide bomber on Sunday killed a deputy leader of an influential Iraqi Sunni Arab political party as he and other politicians met to discuss an upcoming provincial election, the party's leader said.

Hassan Zaidan Al-Lihebi, deputy leader of the Iraqi National Dialogue Front, was killed by a suicide bomber who stormed his house, shot at guards and blew himself up in a crowded reception room, Saleh Al-Mutlaq, the party's leader told Reuters.

"The suicide bomber opened fire on the guards and entered the house. They tried to stop him but they didn't manage to do that before he got near Hassan and blew himself up," Mutlaq said.

Meanwhile, Iraqi lawmakers will form a committee to try to break the deadlock over the choice of a new speaker after the Sunnis failed to reach a consensus on a nominee, the deputy speaker said on Sunday. The Sunni speaker Mahmoud Al-Mashhadani resigned on December 23 amid widespread complaints about his erratic behaviour, leaving the key post vacant for nearly a month.

The bid to resolve the dispute came just two weeks before the provincial election, aimed, in large part, at empowering the minority Sunnis.
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