Officials with Sadr's movement took a similar stand Friday in Kufa, the group's headquarters in southern Iraq.
"I call for all those who backed the elections to demand a formal schedule for the withdrawal of foreign forces," said a spokesman, Hashim Abu Raghif, reading a statement in the name of Sadr, who has rarely appeared since fighting ended in August between his militia and U.S. forces. "They asked to hold the elections, and they were answered. So let them end the occupation."
A man in Baghdad studies a newspaper featuring President Ghazi Yawar, Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and Sunni politician Adnan Pachachi.
(Mohammed Uraibi -- AP)
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U.S. officials and their Iraqi allies have refused to set a time for a withdrawal, saying they instead want to wait until Iraqi security forces can enforce order. Given the uneven track record of the freshly trained forces, the officials have been loath to set a deadline.
"I just don't think right now that the American government wants to get in the business of time frames," the diplomat said. "Better not to make promises that you are not sure that you can keep."
The results of Sunday's election may not be complete until next week, but a list backed by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the country's most influential religious leader, has made the strongest early showing. While diverse, the list is anchored by two avowedly Islamic parties: the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and factions grouped under the Dawa party.
Both Shiite parties have sent conciliatory signals in recent weeks, urging the widest possible participation in the constitution's drafting and playing down the role of the Shiite clergy in the coming government.
But the agenda of the Supreme Council, in particular, sits uneasily with many Sunni leaders, who fear the group is beholden to neighboring Iran and who recoil at its often explicitly sectarian rhetoric. (Often, Sunni Arabs are reluctant to identify themselves as such, framing their words in nationalist rather than religious terms.) In Baratha mosque, loyal to the Supreme Council, the prayer leader on Friday ridiculed the Association of Muslim Scholars and compared its brand of Islam to "Saddam Hussein's Islam."
Samarrai and others said they were already worried by other statements of candidates on the Sistani-backed list, who began jockeying for positions in the government even before the election was held. Their biggest concerns: that a Shiite militia loyal to the Supreme Council would enter the government's fledgling security forces and that the process of weeding out former Baathists would be stepped up.
"Worse or better depends on the policy of the next government," Samarrai said.
"That will be the end of it," Nadhmi said in an interview. "There would be no reconciliation."
In part, the Sunni and nationalist groups may be playing to their own constituencies. By all accounts, the Sunni turnout was far lower than that of Shiites and Kurds, although Sunni leaders debate whether that was a result of intimidation or adherence to calls for a boycott. But some residents in such Sunni towns as Ramadi and Tikrit have suggested there may be regrets over the choice. The disappointment seems strongest in urban areas, which have proved less sympathetic to the insurgency than the countryside.
The insurgents "made fools of us," said Mahmoud Ghasoub, a businessman in Baiji, a restive northern town. "They voted to disrupt the elections but failed. Now we have lost both tracks. We did not vote, nor did they disrupt the elections."
Mohammed Hayawi, 41, a bookseller in Baghdad, voiced similar sentiments, even though he voted. As a nationalist, he said, he resents the American occupation and remains baffled at the lack of electricity almost two years after Hussein's fall.
"The ballot box was for America," said Hayawi, who voted for the party of Adnan Pachachi, a former foreign minister. "I know I was being hypocritical. But there was no other choice. The future of Iraq is a line that goes through the occupation. If you asked me why I was voting, it's because I want to find something to pull me out of this mud."
He paused, then added: "Maybe this is the rope that will save us."
Special correspondents Saad Sarhan in Kufa, Salih Saif Aldin in Tikrit and Bassam Sebti in Baghdad contributed to this report.
