Anti-West cleric takes lead in Iraqi election
Surprise upset for incumbent al-Abadi
BEIRUT • A radical cleric who led a militia that fought British and American troops in Iraq was Monday on course to win the country’s election, in a surprise upset for Western-backed incumbent Haider al-Abadi.
Muqtada al-Sadr’s Sairoon alliance of reformed Shia militants and communists are ahead in six of Iraq’s 18 provinces and second in four others.
“We are moving to a free and independent Iraq,” alSadr said just before Saturday’s voting in a televised address from his office in the Shiite city of Najaf. “We are going to move to an Iraq safe from corruption, terrorism and militias.”
He warned that if there were manipulation and fraud in the election, “we will make the earth quake beneath the feet of the cheaters and corrupt.”
His Mahdi Army waged a brutal insurgency against coalition troops during the 2006-2008 civil war and offered a reward for any British soldiers captured. Sadr has since disavowed violence against fellow Iraqis and in 2008 ordered his forces to become a humanitarian group.
Sadr, 44, rebranded himself as a secular nationalist, campaigning against corruption and for reform, a message that seemed to resonate with Iraqis, tired of entrenched sectarianism and graft in the country. Under the slogan “corruption is terrorism” he has called for better governance and a fairer distribution of resources.
He is also one of few Shia leaders to have kept his distance from Iran, which has tried to extend its reach across the region.
A ticket headed by Hadi al-Ameri, a former commander of Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), appeared to be in second place. The early results dealt a shock to Abadi, the favourite. The Britisheducated engineer appeared to be third overall and fifth in Baghdad, which holds the largest number of seats.
While the early results were not entirely good news for Washington, it will see some comfort in the fact that staunchly pro-Iran parties did not fare better at a time when U.S. relations with Tehran are worsening.
But the complex electoral arithmetic of the Iraqi system means that no party is likely to win more than half the 329 seats needed to form a majority. There is likely to be weeks of horse-trading as the dominant parties try to form a coalition and agree upon a new parliament and a new prime minister.