A leading Shiite Muslim politician dismissed U.S. concerns that the lack of a census and voting laws were obstacles to early elections, saying a ballot would secure Iraq’s political future.
Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim also rejected calls for the Shiite Muslim majority to compromise in its quest to directly elect Iraq’s next government ahead of the July 1 hand-over of sovereignty from the U.S.-led coalition.
Al-Hakim, who represents the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, said even expanding the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council would lack legitimacy.
“How can we go to some closed . . . halls and choose people?” al-Hakim said in an interview Sunday. “The people will doubt in every intention our slogans. And the next government will not have a popular base.”
Leading the call for the elections has been Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a 73-year-old Iranian-born cleric who survived the political and religious perils of Saddam Hussein’s regime by maintaining a low profile. The reclusive al-Sistani has emerged as the country’s most influential political power.
Recognized as a marja at-taqlid, or source of imitation, al-Sistani is regarded by Shiites as a kind of living saint. In addition to seeking al-Sistani’s views on politics, Iraqi’s Shiite masses look to him for advice on matters ranging from proper diet to sexual hygiene, his pronouncements going out via a Web site in Arabic and English.
Shiite political leaders have been quick to align themselves with al-Sistani, using his prestige to advance their agendas.
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Al-Hakim described al-Sistani as a person “who reads a lot, follows the news” and “has a strong ability to defend his opinion because the opinion he is choosing is one he has studied.”
“He lived for a long period under the oppression of the previous regime,” al-Hakim said. “He sees the best way to prevent oppression on people is for a good government to come in power depending on the popularity of the people.”
U.S. plan in peril
Under a U.S.-backed plan, direct elections would not occur until next year. Instead, 18 regional caucuses would choose delegates to a transitional national assembly, which would select the government that would take over from the U.S.
Long-persecuted Shiite Muslims, who account for about 60 percent of Iraq’s 24 million people, are pressing for direct elections before the hand-over of sovereignty, a prospect that alarms the Sunni Muslim minority, Kurds in the north and secular Iraqis.
The call for elections has imperiled the U.S. plan and created divisions within the Governing Council, a 25-member body that includes representatives of all the country’s factions, including al-Hakim.
Interior Minister Nori al-Badran bolstered the case against quick elections Monday. He said Iraq’s fledgling police force would be unable to “protect the security and administration of the elections.”
Al-Badran, who is a Shiite, asked that direct elections “be postponed for a while.”
But the demand for direct elections gathered momentum earlier this month when thousands of peaceful demonstrators took to the streets in Baghdad, Basra and other Iraqi cities. The rallies were a stark demonstration of the ability of Shiite clerics to mobilize vast blocs of political support.
Al-Hakim stepped into political leadership after the Aug. 29 assassination of his brother, Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, who was killed along with at least 82 others in a blast at a mosque in Najaf.
Unlike most Shiite clerics, al-Hakim has traveled widely, recently as part of an Iraqi delegation to the U.S. that met with President Bush, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan. He also has conferred with European leaders.
`Not just a slogan’
“We are asking for elections to show the real opinion, the real will of the people,” al-Hakim said. “It’s not just a slogan we are raising.
“We want to build a new Iraq,” he added. “And this new Iraq depends on your vote.”
Al-Hakim also said Sunday that Bush asked him after their meeting this month “to give his regards to the Ayatollah Sistani” and Bush said “we are all praying to the same God.”
The cleric said that by voting, the people will take responsibility for the nation’s course and will force the leaders to take equal responsibility.
From such a system, he said, “the rulers will not cause problems for you [Americans] and the whole world” as happened under Hussein’s regime.
He downplayed a series of obstacles that U.S. officials say would preclude early elections, including an accurate census in Iraq, election laws and the country’s precarious security situation, which could prevent voters from going to the polls.
Al-Hakim has insisted for weeks that any obstacles can be overcome. He said local leaders recently completed a census in Sadr City, a Baghdad slum.
“If people with simple capabilities managed a huge census, they can also manage elections,” he said.
Al-Hakim acknowledged that standard elections include voter rolls and laws regulating political parties.
“Maybe that kind of elections we cannot do in these days,” he said. But he added: “We can distribute some simple papers that are signed in a way to prevent fraud.
“People who already exist here,” he said, “can give their votes.”
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