Supporters of Anti-American cleric shun Iraqi election front-runners in referendum

Al-Sadr’s movement backs neither Iraq front-runner

BAGHDAD — The two front-runners vying to become Iraq’s next prime minister failed to get the support of an influential Shiite movement in results from a poll released Wednesday, further muddying the political situation following inconclusive March elections.

Instead, the bulk of supporters of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who has emerged as a kingmaker, said he should back Shiite politician Ibrahim al-Jaafari, who was interim prime minister from 2005 to 2006. Nearly as many cast ballots for one of al-Sadr’s relatives.

The Sadrists held the informal weekend poll after former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi’s secular bloc won just two seats more than incumbent Nouri al-Maliki’s coalition in March 7 parliamentary elections. With both sides far short of the majority needed to govern alone, the candidates are now scrambling to muster the support needed to form a government.

Al-Sadr became key to those efforts after his followers won at least 39 seats in the 325-seat parliament, up 10 seats from their current standing. That makes them the largest bloc within the Iraqi National Alliance, a Shiite religious coalition that placed third in the race.

Al-Sadr’s spokesman Salah al-Obeidi announced the results of the poll but left open whether al-Sadr would follow the guidance of his supporters in the course of future negotiations, which are expected to take months, saying that “each event has its own way.”

The poll of al-Sadr’s supporters was widely viewed as a way for the cleric to give himself the opportunity to back someone other than al-Maliki, under the guise of following the people’s will.

Al-Maliki and Allawi received only 10 percent and 9 percent of poll votes respectively.

The results were hardly a ringing endorsement for al-Jaafari either, with al-Sadr’s relative Mohammed Jaffar al-Sadr receiving 23 percent of the vote, senior Sadrist politician Qusay al-Suhail receiving 17 percent, and a handful of others splitting the remainder of the ballots.

Al-Sadr rose to prominence after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, forging a political dynasty based on the network and prestige of his father, a leading Shiite cleric killed by Saddam Hussein in 1999. His followers fought some of the bloodiest battles with U.S. forces and were blamed in some of the worst sectarian violence before they were routed by a series of U.S.-Iraqi offensives in 2008.

There has been deep enmity between the Sadrists and al-Maliki since the prime minister turned on al-Sadr’s powerful militia in 2008, despite receiving key support from al-Sadr in 2006 when he formed his government.

Winning Kurdish support could also be key in helping either al-Maliki or Allawi form the next government.

On Wednesday, a representative of Iraq’s Kurdish President Jalal Talabani met with the country’s most revered and politically influential Shiite leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Najaf for talks on the process of forming new government.

As he emerged from the talks, Talabani’s adviser Fakhri Karim said the cleric had told him that he was pushing for all factions to be involved in the political process.

Al-Sistani “stressed the necessity of the participation of all the parties in the political process without excluding any,” Karim told reporters without elaborating.

Violence has surged amid the struggle for power — most recently with a series of bombings Tuesday that killed 54 people and injured 187. More than 120 have been killed in a five-day spree of attacks in and around the capital, which Iraqi and U.S. officials have blamed on al-Qaida insurgents seizing on gaping security lapses created by the political deadlock.

Police investigating the Tuesday attacks said in one case, the suspected bomber rented a first-floor apartment in one of the buildings a week ago and likely rigged it with explosives.

Police are working on the theory that the other buildings were attacked the same way, an investigator told the AP on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk with the press, suggesting that the bombings were carefully planned and executed.

In reaction, the government said it would bolster enforcement of an Iraqi law that requires local police or other officials to approve any rental contracts before people move into a new home.

The recent violence, which has largely targeted families and homes, has been reminiscent of the sectarian bloodshed that tore Iraq apart from 2005 to 2007 and prompted the United States to send tens of thousands more troops to the front lines.

Hundreds of mourners on Wednesday marched through the streets of the predominantly Shiite area of Baghdad that was the focus of the attacks in funeral processions.

In one procession, families and friends of one victim carried his coffin and picture over their heads through the narrow streets, walking to the cadence of a gun being fired into the air in time to a drum.

Nearby, the coffin of another victim, draped in an Iraqi flag, was carried to a car to be taken away for burial, as mourners wailed and fired gunshots into the air.

“The whole district is in mourning because even if you didn’t have a relative killed, it might have been a neighbor or a friend,” said shop-owner Saif Hassan, who blamed the government for not providing better security.

“Instead of improving our area with reconstruction and services, we face bombings and destruction,” the 25-year-old said.