Given the sectarian nature of Iraqi politics, is it possible that the new bloc formed at the weekend to run in January's elections is secular, asks Salah Hemeid Two Iraqi political groups announced on Saturday that they would be joining forces to run in January's parliamentary elections. The National Accord Movement, led by Iyad Alawi, a former US-backed Shia politician, and the National Dialogue Front, led by Saleh Mutlaq, a former Baathist Sunni lawmaker, said in a statement that they had formed the new Iraqi National Movement. The new group said that its aim was to create a political environment that would attempt to end sectarianism, start rebuilding the devastated country and stop the influence of neighbouring states in Iraq, especially that of Iran. The group also said that the objective of the new coalition was to build the Iraqi armed forces on a broad national basis and as part of a framework to enforce the law. Iraq is scheduled to hold parliamentary elections on 16 January 2010, but there is a growing fear that the vote could be delayed due to legislators' inability to pass a revised election law. Shia, Sunni and Kurdish blocs have been squabbling for weeks over voting procedures and elections in the oil-rich province of Kirkuk. By emphasising national unity and declaring itself to be a non-sectarian group, the new alliance is trying to build on the increasing frustration felt by Iraqis with the sectarian political groups that have been in power since the US-led invasion of the country that toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein. Many Iraqis hope that the upcoming elections will mark a departure from the sectarianism that has plunged the country into civil war and that they will promote reconciliation. During a ceremony held at a club built by the former British colonial regime in Baghdad, speaker after speaker took the podium to denounce what they called the American invasion and occupation of Iraq and the dissolution of the country's army after the war. The speakers also blasted the so- called de-Baathification law, enacted by the US-led administration following the invasion, under which top Baathists were banned from politics and from holding senior government jobs. The January elections will be a milestone as Iraq prepares for the withdrawal of US troops by 2012, and they will be met, too, with scepticism about whether the fledging Iraqi armed forces are able to police the still violence-torn and divided nation. Several alliances, many presenting themselves as nationalists who have rejected the sectarianism that has pitted Iraq's majority Shia and once-dominant Sunnis against each other, plan to compete in the parliamentary elections. Iraq's Shia prime minister, Nuri Al-Maliki, seeking re-election by claiming credit for improved security, has set up a State of Law List, a broad-based alliance consisting of his Daawa Party and other groups, including some Sunni tribal leaders, Shia, Kurds, Christians and independents. The coalition plans to run on a non-sectarian platform and hopes that security gains made under Al-Maliki and promises to improve public services and ensure Iraq remains a united state will win it the majority of seats. The other Shia bloc contesting the elections is the Iraqi National Alliance, which brings together the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC), followers of the firebrand cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr, the Al-Fadhila Party and some Shia politicians, such as former prime minister Ibrahim Al-Jaafari and Ahmed Al-Chalabi, a US-backed former exile who played a pivotal role in the US-led invasion. Some Sunni leaders are also participating in the Alliance, which also claims that it is running on a non- sectarian basis. A third group has been created by Shia interior minister Jawad Al-Bolani, Ahmed Abu Risha, a leader of the anti-Al-Qaeda Sunni tribal chieftains, and Ahmed Abdel-Ghafour Al-Samaraai of the Sunni Endowment movement. This group also prides itself on its non- sectarian platform and national agenda. Like the Shias, Sunni Arabs have also seen many splits and divisions, but, unlike in the 2005 elections when they ran under the banner of the National Accordance Front, several Sunni groups are now planning to run separately in the forthcoming elections. The Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP) is presenting its own list of candidates, while several Sunni politicians and some tribal leaders have declared that they will form their own lists, further dividing the Sunni electorate. The Kurdish coalition in the elections is dominated by the two parties administering Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region. These are the Kurdish Democratic Party led by the region's president, Masoud Barzani, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan headed by Iraq's president, Jalal Talabani. Both parties are secular in nature but adopt a Kurdish national agenda. Given the nature of the various parties running in the forthcoming elections, it is hard to fathom why the foreign media, especially Western newspapers and wire services, have hailed the Alawi-Mutlaq alliance as being secular, while condemning the rest for being religious and sectarian. It is understood that anti-sectarian slogans are often preached by Iraqi political movements in order to project a pro-national unity perspective, but Iraqis themselves usually realise when this is only a matter of rhetoric and when it is not reflected in politicians' deep convictions. The greatest problem Iraqis face in the next elections is that once again they will be going to the ballot boxes driven by sectarian instincts and with the aim of ensuring sectarian quotas. What Iraq needs is a single figure, or a group of politicians, that can unify the country, which is currently fractured along sectarian and ethnic lines. For the time being, the new alliance announced at the weekend does not look as if it will be able to fulfil this role. Instead, it looks more like a convergence of power- hungry and opportunist Shia and Sunni politicians aiming to intimidate a wide segment of the society rather than providing a real national-unity alternative. The rhetorical ammunition on display at events like the launch of the Alawi-Mutlaq alliance also expresses the ongoing ethnic and sectarian divide. If by calling for the abolition of the de-Baathification law and making insinuations about the Shia-led government's role in facilitating Iran's increasing influence in the country, the alliance wants to flirt with the Sunnis, then the political capital it has expended to promote a non-sectarian agenda has been wasted. Such sloganeering, even if unintentional, is bound to boost sectarianism and open the door to a government once again dominated by Shias. Two days after the birth of the new alliance Al-Maliki fired back at critics, vowing that his government would not allow a comeback of the Baathists. "The Iraqi people and the families of the martyrs and prisoners should speak out in order that the Baath will not enter parliament," he said in an address to a meeting of the Investigation and Justice Committee, which is responsible for investigating alleged Baathist crimes. "We say to the Iraqi people that there will be no stability and no happiness while these "bacteria" still exist. Not one of them has so far stood up to make an apology to the Iraqi people," Al-Maliki said, referring to former members of the Baath Party. While Iraqis may well have grown tired of the bloodshed between Sunnis and Shias that erupted after the 2003 US-led invasion, it is a long shot to suppose that a genuinely secular national leadership can emerge in the country on its own, or that it can effectively build partnerships and export a spirit of reconciliation to Iraqis on both sides of the sectarian divide.
