Shiite List Announced For January

Shiite List Announced for January Elections

Sameer Yacoub of AP gives an overview of the unified Shiite list announced Thursday, The United Iraqi Alliance. It groups a large number of Shiite and other parties, including the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Abdul Aziz al-Hakim); the Badr Organization (former Badr Corps); The Dawa Party (Ibrahim Jaafari); the Islamic Dawa (Abdul Karim al-Anizi); the Iraqi National Congress (Ahmad Chalabi); and a large number of independents, about half the list (who are leaders in their localities) in the national elections. There are some Sunni candidates, as well as a handful of Kurdish ones, but it appears that Shiites are the vast majority of the list.

The big surprise was that the Sadr movement did not join in. Muqtada al-Sadr had neglected to register his movement as a political party. His aides are also being arrested and harassed by the Allawi government’s national guards, and his withdrawal from the list is related to this targetting of his men.

Al-Sharq al-Awsat reports that Muqtada has nevertheles promised to support the list.

Another surprise is that the Badr Corps, the paramilitary of the Supreme Council, was included as a party alongside the others.

Will blog more later Friday.