Clinton hails Iraqi election ban lift

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday hailed an Iraqi appeals court ruling to reinstate barred Ba’ath-linked candidates for the upcoming elections, amid outcries of the Iraqi government over US meddling.

“We were heartened by the decision earlier this week to reverse the deletion of the 500 names from the list for the upcoming election,” Clinton told reporters, urging Iraqi politicians to avoid moves that could undermine the legitimacy of the elections.

An appeals panel’s ruling on Wednesday said more than 500 candidates barred from Iraq’s March 7 general elections could stand despite suspicions of affiliation with the deposed dictator Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath party.

The candidates and parties in question were blacklisted by Iraq’s Justice and Accountability Commission Л set up to ensure the Ba’ath party did not return the country’s to political stage.

Washington’s concern over the legitimacy of the next month polls, originally scheduled for January, seems to contradict the Baghdad government’s pledge to prevent the outlawed party from coming back into life.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Thursday rejected the withdrawal of the election ban as “illegal” and called for a parliamentary discussion on the issue.

In response to US Ambassador Christopher Hill’s praise for the ruling to reinstate the barred candidates, the Iraqi leader said he would not let the envoy go beyond his position as a diplomat.

Maliki vowed not to allow the US to interfere in his country’s electoral decision-making process and insisted the ban had to be implemented.