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By Steve Negus and Dhiya Rasan in Baghdad
Published: December 7 2004 02:00 | Last updated: December 7 2004 02:00
Representatives of Iraq's senior Shia cleric said yesterday they had finalised an electoral slate thought to include the country's main Shia parties as well as former anti-government insurgents.
Although the list has been in formation for more than a month, the announcement quells speculation that Iraq's most ambitious electoral alliance might break down over inter-party disputes as to how many seats each received. It also reduces concerns that Moqtada al-Sadr, the mercurial former rebel, might change his decision to participate in the elections on January.
Hussein al-Shahristani, list organiser, said that the United Iraqi Alliance would officially announce the names of its candidates tomorrow after submitting its application to the country's electoral commission.
He said that the list, sponsored by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, would include major parties, tribal leaders from across the country and leaders of religious and ethnic minorities including the Shia Kurds, in addition to followers of Mr Sadr.
Other press reports have said that the National Democratic party of Nasir al-Chaderchi, a Sunni liberal, Ahmad Chalabi, the maverick Shia politician, and the leader of the predominantly Sunni al-Shammar tribe would join Mr Sistani's list.
The list was announced the day after Ali Smeisim, a key deputy for Mr Sadr, announced in the Iraqi press that the Shia radical leader had definitively agreed to participate in the elections after talks with Mr Sistani.
Mr Sadr had said after calling off an insurrection in August that his followers would participate in electoral politics.
The formation of Mr Sistani's lists was also reportedly plagued by last-minute disagreements, with one gathering of clerics, the Shia Political Council, saying that it had pulled out of the alliance as the ayatollah had insisted on including too many "extremists" favouring direct clerical rule.
Other alliances that will participate in the elections include a pact put together by the two main Kurdish parties and the multi-ethnic "Iraqis" group headed by interim President Ghazi al-Yawer, a Sunni Arab tribal leader.
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