In Iraq, most hopefuls with ‘Baathist links’ not to run

The majority of the candidates suspected of association with the outlawed Baath Party have failed in their quest for qualification to compete in the upcoming parliamentary elections.

An Iraqi appeals panel wrote to the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), saying it had accepted only 26 of the nearly 500 appeals by the candidates, the Reuters reported on Saturday.

Usama al-Ani, deputy head of the IHEC, said the panel had rejected 145 of the appeals with the parties voluntarily replacing the rest of the candidates.

The candidates are barred from the country’s eagerly-anticipated parliamentary elections, expected on March 7, over alleged links to the Baath Party of the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

“Among those whose appeals were rejected were Saleh al-Mutlaq and Dhafer al-Ani,” said the Iraqi official, referring to two of the candidates with alleged strong Baathist orientations.

Al-Ani prompted concerns after he lavished praise on the Baath in several television interviews. Iraq’s President Jalal Talabani subsequently ordered for al-Ani to be stripped of his immunity as the chairperson of the Iraqi Accordance Front, the parliament’s largest Sunni Arab bloc and that he be tried in a court of law.

Mutlaq, following initial disqualification, was chosen to compete in the polls as part of the parliamentary squad of the former Iraqi prime minister and alleged US ally Ayad Allawi.

Talabani had reportedly expressed grave concerns over the resurgence of the Baath loyalists earlier, saying a return by the ‘dictators’ would undo all the achievements of the Iraqi nation and warning that the Baathists planned to stage a “military coup” in the country.

After the ban was upheld, Allawi’s secular Al-Iraqiya Alliance party froze its electoral campaign in protest at the ban, AFP reported.