Senior Religious Leader Signals Flexibility on Iraqi Elections

Iraq’s senior Shiite Muslim cleric has signaled a willingness to step back from his demand for direct elections of a transitional government to take over from the U.S.-led coalition next year, religious and political leaders said Saturday.

Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani told two members of the Iraqi Governing Council that, although he remained convinced that direct general elections are the only legitimate means of selecting new leaders, he might heed the advice of an independent U.N. fact-finding team if Secretary-General Kofi Annan were to dispatch one.

Resolving the standoff through U.N. mediation is still an idea in its infancy, as Sistani has yet to even inform the rest of his Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or SCIRI, of the proposal that emerged from a Friday meeting with two Shiite members of the Governing Council, Mouwafak Rabii and Ahmad Chalabi.

A confluence of interests among Iraqi political figures and the Coalition Provisional Authority trying to fashion an exit strategy appeared to be driving the search for compromise. Governing Council members have pointed out that insistence on direct elections could delay the handover of sovereignty to Iraqis -- a prospect many here regard as far more problematic than choosing transitional leaders through provincial caucuses. U.S. officials have made clear their determination to stick to the midyear handover and withdrawal, mindful of the approaching U.S. presidential election.

Iraqi media reported the ayatollah’s proposal in Saturday news editions, apparently based on information from Rabii and Chalabi. SCIRI officials confirmed the religious leader’s call for a third-party opinion.

“If it is truly impossible to hold direct elections, he wants to hear that from a neutral institution like the United Nations,” SCIRI spokesman Adel Abdul Mehdi said of Sistani.

Hamid Bayati, SCIRI’s former representative in exile during Saddam Hussein’s rule, also confirmed that the ayatollah “would like to see an independent judgment about what is possible.” Whether the U.N. will be drawn into the debate remains to be seen, Bayati added.

A coalition official, speaking on condition of anonymity, suggested that U.S. civilian administrator L. Paul Bremer III would be unlikely to object to such mediation because U.N. officials have already indicated that they believe “rushing to elections would be a mistake.” Both the world body and the coalition want proper preparation of general elections, he said, and have accepted that the process will take at least another year.

In Washington, a senior State Department official said Sistani had refused to talk directly with Bremer but that the U.S. administrator was working through Chalabi and other Governing Council members to try to resolve the impasse.

“We’ve been engaged with him to suggest to him that we can be flexible,” the official said.

Although the United Nations has yet to be approached with the proposal for rendering an independent opinion on the feasibility of early elections, Sistani’s proposal appeared a face-saving way for all parties to break a stalemate that had developed after a Nov. 15 agreement between the Governing Council and the coalition to move up the timetable for a return to Iraqi sovereignty. The council faces a mid-January deadline for defining transitional assembly procedures, and Sistani’s position had paralyzed the governing body.

As the most influential Shiite leader in the country, Sistani has the power to thwart any political process he objects to.

Should Sistani issue a fatwa, or religious order, forbidding Shiites to take part in a political process he deems illegitimate, most believe that fellow Shiites would heed that call for a boycott.

Iraq’s Shiites, who were brutally repressed by Hussein’s Sunni Muslim-dominated Baath Party, would probably benefit most from direct elections because they make up 60% of the population and have the best organized political forces.

Officials of the Coalition Provisional Authority say Iraq would need a thorough census and voter registration effort before credible general elections could be held. They have instead been lobbying for a series of provincial caucuses to select delegates to a national assembly that would in turn choose transitional legislative and executive bodies.

Most of the Governing Council’s 25 members have agreed with the CPA and Bremer that too little time remains to organize proper elections before the June 30 target for a hand-over of power. Rabii said in an interview earlier in the week that he expected some compromise to emerge to ensure Iraqis recover control of their country at the earliest opportunity.

The Baghdad daily Elaph disclosed in its Saturday edition that only two Shiite members on the council supported Sistani’s vow to deem any body chosen without popular endorsement as illegitimate and a vestige of the occupation. The Governing Council minority pushing direct elections has suggested that Iraqis could use their food-rationing cards in lieu of a formal voter registry.

Another Governing Council member, Nasir Chaderchi, a Sunni Muslim and leader of the National Democratic Party, contended in an interview with Elaph that the ayatollah’s insistence on a direct vote was “not the only solution for Iraqi representation.”

Another Sunni member of the council, Mohsen Abdel Hamid, reportedly threatened to withdraw from the interim body if it continued to subjugate political decisions to the will of religious leaders, the newspaper reported, adding that Kurdish council member Massoud Barzani was of the same opinion.

Times staff writer Sonni Efron in Washington contributed to this report.