17 Iraqi Parties Pressing For Delay in Elections

Violence and Possible Boycott Called Threats to Results

Sunni Muslims listen to a sermon at a Baghdad mosque. The majority Shiites do not want to delay elections. (Khalid Mohammed -- AP)

BAGHDAD, Nov. 26 -- Influential Sunni Muslim groups and Iraq's two main Kurdish movements requested a delay Friday in nationwide elections set for Jan. 30, fearing that a vote amid persistent violence and a boycott by Sunnis would deprive the results of legitimacy.

The manifesto was endorsed by 17 parties at the home of Adnan Pachachi, a Sunni elder statesman, said Saad Abdul-Razzak, an adviser to Pachachi. The statement called for elections to be held before July 30, "allowing for changes in the security situation and completion of necessary arrangements in organization and administration."

The call was pointedly not endorsed by leading Shiite Muslim parties, which have looked to the elections as a way to ensure long-denied power for Iraq's Shiite majority. The United States, as well, would resist any delay in the vote that would set a precedent for further postponements, said a Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"Once you change it the first time, why can't you change it a second?" the diplomat said. "It's hard to stay on schedule, but it's also a slippery slope if they don't."

The mounting conflict over the timing of the vote reflects the importance nearly all groups in Iraq have placed on the elections, which will choose a 275-member National Assembly charged with appointing a government and drafting a permanent constitution.

So far, the biggest setback to the election has been delivered by the Association of Muslim Scholars, perhaps the most influential group among Iraq's Sunnis. It has declared that it will boycott the election, insisting that no vote can be truly free and fair under the U.S. occupation. Even with a delay, it seems unlikely that the association, which claims to represent 3,000 Sunni mosques in Iraq, would reconsider its position.

Sunni groups that have decided to take part worry that their supporters, many of whom live in areas racked by violence and a persistent insurgency, will heed threats by more-militant groups and stay away from the polls. Given the tenacity of the rebellion, many Iraqis doubt that U.S. forces and Iraqi allies can stanch the fighting -- either by the Jan. 30 election date or by an alternate date in the spring or summer.

The threat of that violence was dramatically illustrated this week. A mortar attack Thursday killed four employees of a British security firm in the heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses the U.S. Embassy and offices of the Iraqi government.

In Fallujah, a former insurgent stronghold in western Iraq that was retaken by U.S. forces this month, two Marines were killed and three wounded as they searched homes. And in and near the northern city of Mosul, U.S. forces discovered 21 bodies over two days, apparently part of a grim campaign of intimidation against Iraqi security forces.

Still, Abdul-Razzak said, a delay would at least offer an opportunity for negotiations to win over those planning a boycott. A refusal to participate by Sunni Arabs -- perhaps a fifth of the population -- could rob the elections of legitimacy that would be crucial for establishing the incoming government and, more importantly, the constitution as stable institutions.

"We think if we talk to them, hold a dialogue with them, we can persuade them to join," Abdul-Razzak said after the four-hour meeting, which was attended by mainly Sunni, Kurdish and secular groups. "Full participation of all Iraqis is very important in this election."

Many Shiites are eagerly anticipating the vote, which is expected to give them their first opportunity in decades to exert power commensurate with their number. Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, whose authority is unparalleled among Shiites, has issued a religious edict, or fatwa, requiring every man and woman to vote. On posters around Baghdad, his words are superimposed on a map of Iraq.

While Sistani has made clear that he understands how important it is for the vote to be viewed as legitimate, it would be difficult for him to endorse a delay. In the shrine city of Najaf, where Sistani is based, crowds at the Friday sermon shouted, "Yes, yes to elections. No, no to terrorism." A banner on a wall read: "Elect the right person so that the mass graves and abuse of holy sites will never happen again."

Some ministers in Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's interim government are known to support a delay, and Allawi would probably benefit, with his administration gaining more time to secure a power base. But in public this month, Allawi and Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari have insisted that the vote will be held on time. Allawi's party did not endorse the call to delay the vote.