By Steve Negus
Financial Times, 05 December 2005.
On the walls of Baghdad's Shia slums posters show the face of deposed president Saddam Hussein slowly morphing into that of Iyad Allawi, the former Iraqi prime minister and the most prominent critic of the current Shia-led government. "Ba'athists", the posters declare.
As December 15's parliamentary elections draw close, a bitter war of words is being waged between Mr Allawi, a secular Shia who was once a member of Saddam Hussein's ruling Ba'ath party, and the Shia Islamist United Iraqi Alliance which currently controls over half the seats in parliament.
The rivalry pits two wings of the pre-war anti-Saddam Hussein opposition against each other in an increasingly vicious contest.
Mr Allawi's Iraqi National List stands little chance of beating the Alliance outright. In Iraq's last elections, in January, with the support of the venerated Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the UIA list won nearly half the total votes cast, while the then-incumbent prime minister took only 14 per cent.
Although the Grand Ayatollah was reportedly reluctant to enter further into partisan politics, over the weekend his deputies put out a statement urging voters to avoid any "dangerous" list which "is not bound by religious and national principles" - read by most Iraqis as an endorsement of the UIA.
But a newfound enthusiasm for the political process among the Sunni Arabs is likely to dilute the Alliance's majority. Supporters hopeit will boost Mr Allawi's chances, putting his movement in a strong positionin the post-election nego-tiations to form a government.
The Alliance has lost some of its sheen during its eight months in power, with Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari accused of being weak and incompetent, and Bayan Jaber, interior minister, accused of sectarianism and toleration of human rights abuses.
With the campaign heating up, both sides are playing on fear of the other, and both suggest the other is planning to play dirty.
Emphasising the former prime minister's Ba'athist past is likely to rekindle the fears of many Shia whofelt that while Mr Allawi was in power, the security forces were unsympathetic to their communities and did little to protect them from attack.
Mr Allawi, for his part, has posed as a defender of the military establishment and of the Sunni Arabs in general, and accused the Islamist-dominated government of human rights abuses.
His supporters also say they fear electoral fraud in southern Iraqi provinces dominated by militias loyal to UIA factions, and in some parts of the country the campaign has turned ugly.
Police sources reported the former prime minister and his entourage were pelted with shoes and rocks yesterday while visiting the holy city of Najaf by a crowd shouting "God curse Ba'athists".
--------------------------------------
Citation: Steve Negus. "Shia in war of words as elections draw near," Financial Times, 05 December 2005.
Original URL: http://news.ft.com/cms/s/2757b05c-6533-11da-8cff-0000779e2340,ft_acl=,s01=1.html
--------------------------------------