Ex-Iraqi PM unveils alliance to fight election

Iraq's former pro-Western prime minister Iyad Allawi on Saturday unveiled a broad secular alliance of candidates to contest the country's general election on March 7.

Allawi, a Shiite politician who in exile mounted an opposition movement against Saddam Hussein, was provisionally appointed by Washington as Iraq's first premier after the dictator's ouster in the U.S.-led invasion of 2003.

He held the post for just under a year.

His public profile and influence has since slipped -- he currently has no ministers in the war-torn nation's government -- but he is a sworn foe of current Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, whom he aims to unseat.

"We are a national political entity, committed to serving all Iraqis and we call on them to join us," Rafa al-Essawi, the country's Sunni deputy prime minister, told hundreds of people at a glitzy Baghdad ceremony.

Allawi did not speak at the gathering where candidates for his Al-Iraqiya Alliance were unveiled but he was flanked by Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi who fired an opening verbal salvo at Maliki.

"He (Maliki) has failed to create a state of citizens to replace a state of (religious) communities," Hashemi told candidates and onlookers at the launch ceremony held at Al-Rasheed Hotel.

The prominent Sunni lawmaker Saleh al-Mutlak, who has been banned from competing in the March poll for alleged links to Saddam's former regime, is also a member of Allawi's alliance and was present at the ceremony.

We are a national political entity, committed to serving all Iraqis and we call on them to join us

Rafa al-Essawi

Likening Baath to Nazis

On Friday, a senior Shiite Muslim cleric defended a panel's decision to bar almost 500 candidates from Iraq's next election because of ties to Saddam Hussein's outlawed Baath party, likening the party to the Nazis.

As a controversy threatening to reopen the wounds of Iraq's sectarian divide deepened, Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (ISCI) lawmaker Mohammad al-Haidari called for the ban to be enforced.

"The Baath party is worse than the Nazi party," Haidari said in a speech during Friday prayers. "If Baathists return to power, God forbid, their revenge will be even more ferocious."

The Justice and Accountability Commission, an independent body that aims in part to ensure the Baath party does not return to public life, said last week that 15 parties should be prevented from standing in the March 7 election.

The parliamentary election in March is a key test of Iraq's growing stability as U.S. troops prepare to withdraw by end-2011 and the government signs oilfield development contracts that could turn the war-shattered country into a top oil producer.

The list of barred candidates grew to 499 on Thursday -- out of 6,500 in total -- when it was upheld by Iraq's independent electoral commission.

If Baathists return to power, God forbid, their revenge will be even more ferocious

Mohammad al-Haidari