Allawi Confident Election Will Proceed With Widespread Support

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Iraq’s interim prime minister said yesterday he’s confident only a small number of people will boycott the January 30 elections despite anger among many Sunni Muslims over the Fallujah offensive and a deadly American-Iraqi raid on a Baghdad mosque.“The forces of darkness and terrorism will not benefit from this democratic experience and will fight it,” Ayad Allawi said. “But we are determined that this experiment succeeds.”Mr. Allawi spoke as violence raged in the capital and other cities, and the American Embassy said a bomb was discovered yesterday on a commercial flight inside Iraq. Gunmen in the north assassinated a prominent election opponent, and five decapitated bodies were discovered south of the capital.Despite the violence, the Iraqi government Sunday set January 30 as the date for parliamentary elections, the first since the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship. Officials said the balloting would be held even in areas still plagued by insurgency and despite calls by insurgent Sunni clerics for a boycott.However, Mr. Allawi, a secular Shiite hand-picked by the Americans last June, said he believed that only “a very small minority” would abstain during the election “for one reason or another.”“Their reason will be political, and not sectarian, and they will not be more than 5, 6 or 7%,” Mr. Allawi said in his office in the American-guarded Green Zone. “They are the eventual losers.”Mr. Allawi is expected to run for a seat in the assembly, which would then choose the government.America is anxious that the election go ahead as planned, hoping that an elected government widely accepted by the Iraqi people will take the steam out of the insurgency still raging in Sunni areas of central, western, and northern Iraq, as well as the capital.As the election approaches, American commanders in Iraq probably will expand their troops by several thousand. Army units slated to depart are also being held back until after the election. There now are about 138,000 American troops in Iraq.American officials are concerned that a boycott could deprive the new government of legitimacy in the eyes of the Sunni Arabs, who make up an estimated 20% of the nearly 26 million population. The majority Shiites, believed to form 60% of the population, strongly support elections.Spearheading the boycott call is the Association of Muslim Scholars, an influential Sunni clerical group with suspected links to insurgent groups. The association called for a boycott to protest this month’s American-led assault on the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah and the continued American military presence five months after the restoration of Iraqi sovereignty.Allegations by Fallujah residents that American troops defaced mosques and the large-scale devastation of the city have further stoked the anger of Sunnis, who were further enraged Friday when Iraqi forces backed by American troops raided Baghdad’s Abu Hanifa mosque, Iraq’s most revered Sunni site. Witnesses said three worshippers were shot dead and at least 40 others were detained in the raid. In a gesture to the Sunnis, Mr. Allawi has ordered an investigation.Also yesterday, leaders meeting on Iraq’s future plan to give strong backing to the interim government’s war against insurgents, but won’t set a deadline for withdrawing American led forces from Iraq – despite a push by France and some Arab countries.The draft communique for the conference that began yesterday, also says the interim Iraqi government should meet with its opponents to try to persuade them to take part in the general elections scheduled for January.Iraq asked Egypt to convene the conference to bolster world support for its battle against insurgents and its plan to hold national elections.The meeting brought together Iraq’s six neighbors – Iran, Syria, Turkey, Kuwait, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia – as well as Egypt and several other Arab countries, China and regional bodies such as the Group of Eight, the United Nations, the European Union, the Arab League, and the Organization of the Islamic Conference.Syria’s foreign minister, Farouk al-Sharaa, had tried to seek support for setting a deadline for the withdrawal of foreign forces in Iraq. But the draft communique – which the Egyptian foreign minister said late yesterday had been endorsed by the conference – allows the Iraqi government to decide when the American-led troops should depart. It does remind them that their mandate is “not open-ended.”For all its bloodshed, the insurgency enjoys a certain support in the Arab world, where many regard the American and other troops as occupiers.In a clear rebuff to such sympathies, the draft communique says the participants condemn “all acts of terrorism in Iraq” and call for “the immediate cessation of all such acts in order to alleviate the suffering of the Iraqi people.”In what could be the most contentious part of the conference, Iraq has said it will ask neighboring states to tighten their borders against the infiltration of would-be insurgents and to share information about groups supporting the rebels.

Allawi Confident Election Will Proceed With Widespread Support

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