Sadr no to polls if US stays

[RedEarth]

Baghdad, Sept. 27 (Reuters): Rebel Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr will not take part in elections scheduled for January as long as US forces remain in the country, an aide said today.

“We as Sadr’s movement will not take part in the elections held under the shadow of occupation,” Sheikh Abdul Hadi al-Daraji said. “Sadr movement will not nominate any candidates,” he added.

He also expected Sadr’s followers to boycott the elections.

The announcement contradicts a previous statement by another Sadr aide, who in August said the firebrand Shia street preacher would field candidates and campaign on a platform calling for the withdrawal of US troops in Iraq.

Sadr has seen his popularity rise among nationalist clerics and a generation of poor Shias after challenging the Iraqi government and US-led forces under his “no democracy under occupation” stand.

After three weeks of fighting between Sadr’s Mehdi army and US and Iraqi forces in the southern city of Najaf, Sadr agreed to a peace initiative brokered by Iraq’s most influential religious leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1040928/asp/foreign/story_3813051.asp#

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

1. We're "winning the peace" alright...

:eyes:

[Mike Daniels]

2. Cut off your nose to spite your face

You know, if they ran candidates that showed definite strong support and those candidates lost then perhaps he'd have some basis to claim the election was fixed.

Without running any candidates he's going to have a hard time leveling any charges that can be supported.

[SidDithers]

3. I think that Sadr and Sistani are the keys here...

Allawi is seen as an illegitimite puppet, while Sistani and Sadr command large, loyal followings. It's time to negotiate with the clerics. Perhaps Sistani and Sadr, and the other clerics, would invite and offer protection to an international UN security force, under command of a non-US general, to allow for democratic elections.

A democratic theocracy is probably the best hope for Iraq. Secularism stands no chance, IMO.

Sid

[cthrumatrix]

4. "give ware a chance" by Tom Friedman ....now "give civil war a chance"