Radical cleric Sadr adds to Iraqi PM’s election woes

March 18, 2010 by Andrew McLeod · Leave a Comment

Nuri al-Maliki

Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki has complained of fraud in the 7 March election as he finds his State of Law party trailing a broad secular alliance led by former prime minister Iyad Allawi, but he also faces a challenge by a radical anti-American cleric.

Though Mr Allawi leads by a slender 9,000 votes, his Iraqiya alliance’s strong showing will be seen as a reflection of Sunni resentment at the Iraqi government’s attempt before the poll to ban hundreds of candidates deemed to have had links with Saddam Hussein’s now-outlawed secular Baathist party.

Before he committed that political gaffe Mr Maliki, who like Mr Allawi is a moderate Shiite, had portrayed himself as a non-sectarian nationalist, but he now also appears likely to face a strong challenge from the Iraqi National Alliance, a coalition of Iranian-backed parties.

Followers of Muqtada al-Sadr, a radical Shiite cleric who led the Mahdi Army insurgency against US forces in 2004 and who is demanding an immediate and unconditional withdrawal by US forces, appeared to be doing surprisingly well in the election.

Mr Sadr rejected the 2005 elections because they were held under US control, but this year he urged Iraqis to use their vote as an act of defiance against US occupation. “This will be a door to the liberation of Iraq, to driving out the occupier and do something else which is important, serving the Iraqi people,” said Mr Sadr, who is studying to be an ayatollah in Tehran.

The return of Mr Sadr as a force to be reckoned with could make forming a new government even more complex for Mr Maliki – or whoever may replace him as prime minister – than it was already expected to be. It will also have implications for security, though analysts say Tehran wants stability in Iraq after the United States withdraws its troops, an operation that is due to begin this September and be completed by the end of next year. US commanders, however, say they are prepared to put the Obama administration’s exit plan on hold if the security situation in Iraq unravels.

The Kurdish question and the sharing of resources will also have a strong bearing on stability under a new government. An alliance of the country’s two main Kurdish parties was leading in three Kurdish provinces in northern Iraq, but trailed Mr Allawi’s bloc in Kirkuk – the oil-producing province which the Kurds claim as their capital and is also disputed by Arabs.

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