Iraq candidate ban fans political tensions (Roundup)

Apr 27, 2010, 13:01 GMT

Baghdad - Iraqi politicians on Tuesday responded strongly to a court decision to invalidate the votes of 52 candidates, including one who won, in the March parliamentary election.

The Baghdad electoral court on Monday retroactively banned the candidates because of their former membership of the Baath Party of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

The court ruling adds a new wrinkle to already chaotic political wrangling over the outcome of the election, and further inflames political tensions that have produced a string of deadly bombings in recent weeks.

Iraq's electoral authority on March 26 announced that former prime minister Ayad Allawi's Iraqi List beat incumbent Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's State of Law coalition by two seats in the poll, which was widely seen as a key test of Iraq's stability ahead of the withdrawal of US troops by the end of the year.

If upheld on appeal, the court's decision to disqualify Ibrahim al-Mutlaq, from Allawi's coalition, would help tip the balance in favour of al-Maliki.

The court has yet to rule on whether seven other victorious candidates should be banned, Faraj al-Haidari, of the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), told the German Press Agency dpa Tuesday.

'If votes for those candidates are cancelled, there will be a direct effect on the election results, and on (Allawi's) coalition, which will lose these votes. The number of seats attained by each entity will be directly affected,' he said.

The question of whether the disqualified winning candidates could be replaced by other members of their coalitions could only be addressed after the court's final decision was handed to the commission, al-Haidari said.

It was also unclear what would happen to the votes for 22 losing candidates from Allawi's list disqualified in Monday night's decision.

Politicians from Allawi's coalition on reacted angrily to the ruling.

'This decision is a coup against democracy and the results of the election,' Fattah al-Sheikh, who ran with Allawi's Iraqi List, told dpa.

'We need the international community and the United Nations to intervene. We need a repeat of the Iraqi elections and the formation of a temporary national government until new elections are held and an honest government is formed,' he said.

'Iraq is targeted from abroad and by terrorists,' he added. 'The elections committee is under pressure, and the judges themselves faced pressure to disqualify candidates out of fear they themselves might be blacklisted, since many of them served under the previous regime.'

Osama al-Nujaifi, who led the Iraqi List's campaign in the troubled northern city of Mosul, echoed those remarks.

'Iraq today is in a legal and constitutional vacuum,' he said, charging that 'influential parties in the current government' were attempting to manipulate the process.

'The masses will not stand silent about what is happening, about the violation of the winning candidates' rights,' al-Nujaifi told dpa.

A spokesman for the al-Maliki's State of Law coalition defended the court's decision.

'The decision came from the Iraqi Judiciary, which is independent,' Hajid al-Hosni said. 'Everyone should respect it. No one should doubt its legality.'

The results showing Allawi with a razor-thin lead are already subject to a recount, after a court ruling last week in favour of a manual recount of votes cast in Baghdad, by far the largest electoral prize from the March polls.

Lawyers from al-Maliki's alliance had challenged the Baghdad results, saying they had evidence of fraud.

The court's decision Monday night had 'no relation' to the manual recount, the IHEC's al-Haidari told dpa.

'We will begin preparing for a manual recount of votes cast in more than 11,000 polling stations in Baghdad within a few days, in accordance with the court's order,' al-Haidari said.

'I do not think the results of the manual recount will have an impact on the final election results for Baghdad,' he added.