COMMUNISTS JOIN SADRISTS IN JOINT LIST FOR IRAQ POLLS
▶ Secularists join Shia Islamists, as populist preacher Moqtada Al Sadr urges Al Ahrar to make way for alliance
Iraq’s elections have produced an unprecedented alliance after populist preacher Moqtada Al Sadr announced he would campaign alongside former enemies, the communist separatists.
“This alliance is a first in Iraq,” said Ibrahim Al Jaberi, a cleric and Sadrist official. “It’s a revolution by Iraqis who want reforms, both secularists like the communists and moderate Islamists.”
Mr Jaberi, 34, heads every Friday to central Baghdad’s Tahrir Square to address hundreds of anti-government protesters.
“This alliance is no surprise because for more than two years we’ve been fighting together in every province against sectarianism,” he said.
Activists launched the protest movement in July 2015, demanding reforms, better public services and an end to corruption. They were later joined by followers of Mr Al Sadr, one of a dynasty of religious elders.
“The demands weren’t at all sectarian, they were for the rule of law and for a civil state for the citizen,” said Raed Fahmi, secretary of the Iraqi Communist Party and a former minister of science and technology. “The important thing is that it allowed people from the Islamist movement and secularists to work together.” Communists dominated Iraqi politics in the 1950s, but were crushed and marginalised under dictator Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party. Today, the communists have only one member of parliament.
Shiite religious parties have come to play a greater role since the United States-led 2003 invasion of Iraq that toppled Saddam.
Mr Fahmi said the protest movement had given rise to co-operation “between people who, in principle, have nothing in common ideologically. That then evolved into a political alliance”.
His office was adorned with a red flag bearing the hammer and sickle alongside the Iraqi flag with the inscription: “God is Greatest”.
The alliance, called Marching towards Reform, consists of six mostly non-Islamist groups including the communists and a Sadr-backed technocratic party called Istiqama (“Integrity”).
Mr Al Sadr has withdrawn his Ahrar bloc from parliament and urged its 33 members not to stand in the May 12 poll, to make way for the joint list. In Tahrir Square, Nadia Nasser, 43, a teacher, said their goal was “to change the horrible leaders that have governed us for 14 years”.
“I’m sick of corruption. I’m in favour of this alliance because I want to see new faces,” Ms Nasser said.
Labourer Qassem Mozan, 42, said the alliance was natural: “The Sadrist movement is open to all parties and confessions. For me, we’re one people with a single flag.”
Jassem Al Hilfi, 58, a communist who helps to organise the protests, said he remembered his first meeting with Mr Al Sadr, in 2015 in the Shiite holy city of Najaf.
“We presented him with our plans to fight corruption and create a civilian state through the ballot box,” Mr Al Hilfi said. “He listened to us and said he was willing and ready to co-operate.”
Mr Al Hilfi and Mr Al Sadr have met every two weeks since.
Mr Al Jaberi said some say it was impossible for secularists and the religious to work together. “But it’s not an ideological alliance,” he said. “Everyone has their convictions.”
That has not protected the coalition from heavy criticism by other powerful Shiite religious parties.
“They launched a war against our list and attack us on their TV channels,” Mr Al Jaberi said. “That shows how weak the corrupt are and how strong we are.”
Meanwhile, the Independent High Electoral Commission announced the countries in which Iraqis abroad can cast their votes.
They include the UAE, US, Turkey, Iran, Sweden, UK, Australia, Canada, Jordan, Germany, Holland, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, New Zealand, Lebanon, Vienna and Belgium.