Shiite Alliance Claims Victory

Leaders of a predominantly Shiite Muslim list of candidates said Tuesday that their slate had won more than 50% of the votes cast for Iraq’s transitional national assembly, but reaffirmed that they would refrain from using their power to install clerics in the new government.

Their promise was meant to reassure Kurds, Sunni Muslim Arabs and secular Shiites who fear that the slate would use its strong showing in Sunday’s vote to push for an Islamic state similar to neighboring Iran’s.

The United Iraqi Alliance, a slate that includes Shiite political parties as well as independent Shiite figures, was put together at the behest of the senior Shiite cleric in Iraq, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, whose endorsement was crucial in rallying voters.

Although the ticket includes some figures with religious fundamentalist leanings, its leaders said Sistani rejected the idea of turning Iraq into a theocracy.

“Ayatollah Sistani has said all along that he doesn’t want to see clerics in any government positions, even as local administrators,” said Hussein Shahristani, a soft-spoken scientist and one of the slate’s leaders.

Election workers were counting votes late Tuesday and international officials cautioned that it was not yet certain whether the slate had a majority. Although there was little dispute that the alliance had garnered a large portion of the votes, the slate is not expected to win the two-thirds share in the national assembly needed to name a three-member presidency council that will choose the prime minister.

The prime minister will select a Cabinet, with the assembly’s approval.

The slate will have to reach out to other Shiites and Kurdish tickets and to those Sunnis who won seats in the assembly.

Shahristani and other alliance leaders said they had begun to talk with Sunni Muslims and hoped that the latter would play a significant role in drafting the constitution, the primary task of the assembly.

Many Sunnis have felt marginalized since the U.S. overthrow of Saddam Hussein, who favored fellow Sunnis and ran Iraq as a secular state. A relatively small number of Sunnis voted in Sunday’s election.

Abdelaziz Hakim, the cleric who topped the alliance list, told Reuters news service the slate had won a “sweeping victory.”

“We know that the majority of those who voted cast their vote for the alliance,” said Hakim, who also leads the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, one of the largest Shiite parties.

Shiite Muslims are believed to make up about 60% of the population. They were brutally oppressed by Hussein’s government.

Sistani, 74, whose followers include the majority of Iraqi Shiites, has advocated popular elections since the U.S. invasion nearly two years ago. He believes that Shiites can win their fair share of power through the political process.

Pressure from Shiite political groups reduced the number of independents on the slate. More than half of its candidates are connected with Shiite parties, including the Supreme Council and the Dawa Party.

Also on the slate is Ahmad Chalabi, the leader of the Iraqi National Congress, who for many years was a Pentagon favorite but has recently emphasized his ties with Iran.

With several clerics on the ticket, some Sunni Muslims have expressed concern that Iraq will soon be headed for an Iranian-style government.

“Alliance members are just starting to talk with each other and with other groups that will be in the national assembly,” a Western official said. “I think they don’t yet know themselves what they are going to do.”

Three prominent alliance politicians were mentioned Tuesday as possible candidates for prime minister: Ibrahim Jafari, the leader of the Dawa party; Adel Abdul Mehdi, the current finance minister; and Shahristani, who is known for his close relationship with Sistani and his opposition to Hussein.

Shahristani said there was general agreement that a Sunni Arab would become president.

“We think the Sunni Arabs are a significant group and their number is not less than the Kurds, and ... there has been an agreement that the president should be a Sunni Arab, just as it has been in the interim government,” he said.

“To change it would add insult to injury,” he said.

Ghazi Ajil Yawer, a secular Sunni from Mosul, is the current president.

The alliance appears to share the view of Yawer and other Iraqi politicians that U.S. troops should stay in the country until Iraqi security forces are prepared to take over the job, Shahristani said.

One contentious issue facing the new transitional national assembly is the question of how much weight the new constitution should give to Sharia, or Islamic law.

Also, Kurds are eager to have the Kurdish north recognized in the constitution as an autonomous region, a move that Iraqi Arabs say would split the country.

“We think it’s very important that the constitution be written by all Iraqis and for all Iraqis,” Shahristani said.

“This is not just for Sunni Arabs and Kurds, but also small minority groups, Christians and ... Turkmen. It must be a united government that all Iraqis agree to live by.”