Shiite Muslim politicians backed by Iraq's most prominent religious leader announced a powerful coalition of candidates Thursday that's likely to sweep January's parliamentary elections.
The group, the United Iraq Alliance, didn't outline a platform, but several candidates said setting a deadline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops would be a cornerstone of their campaign.
The alliance, formed under the auspices of Grand Ayatollah Ali al Husseini al-Sistani, is touted as the Shiites' vehicle to power after decades of political and religious oppression under Saddam Hussein. Shiites make up 60 percent of Iraq's population, and millions consider al-Sistani's pronouncements to be law.
The slate of 228 candidates includes turbaned clerics, secular former exiles and a sprinkling of religious and ethnic minorities. Among them is one-time Pentagon favorite Ahmad Chalabi, whose position on the list, No. 10, all but ensures that he'll win a seat in the new national assembly. Chalabi fell out of favor with American officials amid accusations that he passed U.S. secrets to Iran.
Other key candidates belong to two leading Shiite religious parties with strong links to Iran: the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and the Islamic Dawa Party. Top officials of those parties sought refuge in Iran during Saddam's rule.
Some prominent Shiite politicians weren't included in the coalition, including interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, whose party, the Iraqi National Accord, follows a secular agenda. Allawi is expected to run for election, however. Friday is the deadline for registering.
In announcing the slate, officials said the alliance wouldn't agree to postpone elections, now set for Jan. 30, despite Iraq's rampant violence and the insistence of some rival Sunni Muslim factions that the vote be delayed.
The mood at the news conference announcing the alliance was relaxed and confident. Chalabi beamed from his seat at the center of the dais.
January's elections will choose a 275-member national assembly charged with forming a government and writing a new constitution. The constitution must be ratified by national referendum, paving the way for new elections by the end of 2005.
Members of the Shiite alliance didn't offer a complete list of candidates' names and refused to discuss a breakdown of the slate by ethnicity or religious sect. "The program we have is for all Iraqis, not for just one sect to take all the power," said Sheik Homam Hamoodi, a candidate representing the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.
Candidates said women made up 33 percent of the ticket. Only one Sunni candidate was acknowledged publicly: Sheik Fawaz al-Jarba, who heads a massive northwestern tribe and is a cousin of interim President Ghazi al-Yawer.
Hussain Shahristani, a prominent nuclear physicist who's on the list, said the alliance was the result of two months of intense negotiations that at times appeared doomed by the various parties' conflicting agendas.
"This particular alliance has brought together really divergent views, people on the extremes of the political spectrum," Shahristani said. "To bring these people together was not an easy thing to do."
One notable omission from the powerhouse slate was rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who failed to register his movement as a legitimate political party. Shahristani said al-Sadr remained supportive of the Shiite establishment and would encourage his followers - mainly young, poor Shiites - to vote.
However, in a sign that al-Sadr hasn't fully distanced himself from his militant past, police in the holy city of Najaf uncovered a large weapons cache that they said belonged to the cleric's Mahdi Army militia. Al-Sadr had promised to transform his militia into a political party as part of peace conditions after a standoff with U.S. troops in August.
Najaf police Lt. Baha al-Jazairi said Thursday that authorities found 200 rocket-propelled grenades, 75 antitank mines and six antiaircraft weapons during the demolition of old homes near the landmark Imam Ali shrine, where militiamen had taken sanctuary during battles with American soldiers until al-Sistani intervened with a peace deal.
Al-Sistani's success in uniting Shiite factions is the latest example of his ability to influence some of the most important milestones of post-Saddam Iraq. His words have prompted thousands to demonstrate, have delayed or deterred American plans and solved the bloody standoff with al-Sadr when U.S. military force and Iraqi governmental negotiations failed.
So great is his influence that some candidates on the Shiite ticket said they weren't sure they even needed to campaign. When asked which other candidates posed competition, several Shiite politicians smiled or chuckled. They swatted away questions about whether an al-Sistani-backed slate is assured victory.
"It's the reality in Iraq that most people are religiously inclined," Shahristani said. "This list does represent that particular situation."