Iraqi parties protest lifting of ban on 500 'Baathist' candidates

Baghdad - Leading Iraqi political parties on Thursday protested the electoral commission's decision to reverse a ban on some "Baathist" 500 candidates' participation in the March parliamentary polls.

"What is surprising is that the decision applied to all the (banned) candidates, without much thought," Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's State of Law coalition said in a statement. "Even those criminals and members of (former Iraqi president) Saddam (Hussein)'s militias whose hands are stained with the blood of Iraqis benefited from the decision," the coalition, comprised mostly of Shiite and Kurdish political parties, said.

The statement questioned whether "interference and political pressure were behind this move."

The electoral commission's Hamdia al-Husseini on Wednesday announced that the body had reversed a January decision to ban some 500 candidates from participating in elections now scheduled for March 7 on the grounds of their connections to the former ruling Baath Party.

Under Saddam Hussein's rule, it was difficult to find work in the public sector without belonging to the Baath Party, now banned under Iraq's constitution.

The Iraqi National Alliance, a coalition of parties led by the Shiite Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, likewise protested the electoral commission's Wednesday reversal of its previous ban, noting US intervention on the question.

When US Vice President Joe Biden discussed the controversy over the ban with al-Maliki during Biden's January visit to Baghdad, the Iraqi prime minister told him the ban "did not target any specific party."

"The (Iraqi National) Alliance rejects paternalism or intervention in the work of official institutions," it said in a statement Thursday. "(It) rejects any activity that threatens sovereignty."

The Accountability and Justice Commission, an independent body which replaced the de-Baathification Committee, had last month excluded 511 candidates from running in the polls.

Among the most senior politicians on the list was Saleh al-Mutlaq, a secular Sunni politician who heads the National Dialogue Front.

"Disrupting the laws and marginalizing the role of state institutions threatens the future of the political process in general, as well as the parliamentary elections," the Iraqi National Alliance said.

"The Iraqi National Alliance would like to thank the Iraqi people for their clear rejection of the return of the Baath Party, and would like to assure them that the coalition will not allow the breaking of the law or the constitution," the statement said.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/307477,iraqi-parties-protest-lifting-of-ban-on-500-baathist-candidates.html.