BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraq's mainstream Shiite groups Thursday announced a diverse list of 228 candidates for the Jan. 30 elections, a victory for Shiite leaders who wanted to present a powerful, united front as they seek a leading role in post-Saddam Iraq after years on the sidelines.
Yet Iraq's major Sunni factions, whose participation in the vote will be crucial to making it legitimate, were not included and have not put forward a list of candidates. Also absent was a radical Shiite cleric who could spoil the Shiite unity if he rejects the coalition's authority.
In violence in the run-up to the vote, seven Iraqis were killed in separate clashes in Baghdad and the volatile western city of Ramadi.
A car bomb also rocked a busy Mosul vegetable market, wounding two civilians, while a U.S. soldier was injured by roadside bomb in the capital. Another American soldier suffered minor injuries in a similar attack the day before in Samarra, the scene of clashes that culminated in the resignation of the town's police chief.
The list of 23 parties, dubbed the United Iraqi Alliance, may put new pressure on the Sunnis to join the race for the vote, especially now that it seems far more likely to proceed. Key Sunni leaders have demanded a boycott, but the interim Iraqi government and President Bush have said the election must go ahead.
Iraq's leading Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, gave his blessing to the list. He has been working to unite Iraq's majority Shiites ahead of the vote to ensure victory, plus include representatives from Iraq's other diverse communities. Shiites comprise 60 percent of Iraq's 26 million population.
The 228 candidates include independent Sunni Muslims, a Shiite Kurdish group, members of the Yazidis minority religious sect, and a Turkomen movement, among others. Also among them are members of the Iraqi National Congress, led by former exile and one-time Pentagon favorite Ahmad Chalabi.
"I think that this list is a patriotic list. We hope that Iraqi people will back this list," Sheik Fawaz al-Jarba, head of the powerful Sunni Shemar tribes in the northwestern city of Mosul, said at the end of the conference.
Yet there are divides. Separate candidate lists are being compiled by aides to President Ghazi al-Yawer and Prime Minister Ayad Allawi _ drawing some Shiites away from the ticket that the country's top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is overseeing, well-connected Shiite figures have said. The main Kurdish parties will contest the vote with their own unified list, Kurdish leaders have said.
The biggest wild card among the Shiites is firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. An aide said al-Sadr's movement had been invited to take part; he suggested the group refused because it wants to see how the vote plays out.
"If the elections results will be beneficial, we will have another chance to join the elections in the coming phases, and if their results were bad it will be recorded that we did not support the occupation's existence," said al-Sadr's representative in Beirut, Lebanon, Hassan al-Zarqani.
Al-Sadr's movement, which wields wide grassroots support among impoverished and young Shiites, has previously sent mixed messages about its role in the country's political process. There were signs that while al-Sadr and his top aides were not participating, the list had support of others of his followers.
The alliance includes the major Shiite political parties, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution and the Islamic Dawa Party. Both have strong links with Iran, a Shiite but non-Arab neighbor, something the Sadrists often use to question their rivals' Arab identity and commitment to Iraq's interests.
The election will be Iraq's first popular vote since Saddam Hussein's ouster. Iraqis will choose a 275-member assembly that will write a permanent constitution. If adopted in a referendum next year, the constitution would form the legal basis for another general election to be held by Dec. 15, 2005.
Voting will be done by party list, meaning people will vote not for individual candidates but for coalitions like the one presented Thursday. The number of seats coalitions win will be determined by the percentage of the vote they get.
While the United States and top Iraqi leaders say the vote will go ahead, the vote's legitimacy will hinge on the action of Iraq's Sunni groups.
Major parties representing Iraq's 20 percent minority Sunnis have called for the vote's postponement because they say the country is not secure enough. Sunni clerics from the Association of Muslim Scholars urged Sunnis to boycott the election to protest last month's U.S.-led assault on the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.
The influential religious group reiterated its call for Sunnis to boycott the polls, describing as "madness" plans to hold them in January.
"The association's stance toward the elections is firm and unchanged _ we will not take a part in these elections because ... no elections can be held under the pressure of the Americans and the ... deteriorating security situation," said Sheik Mohamed Bashar Al-Faidhi, an association spokesman.
The Kurds, who are estimated to number between 15 percent and 20 percent of the population, are also expected to present their own list soon. They have enjoyed regional self-rule in the north since 1991.
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A bomb exploded at the gate of a revered Shiite shrine Wednesday, killing seven people in an apparent attempt to kill an aide to Iraq's top Shiite cleric and casting the shadow of violence over the first day of campaigning in the country's crucial January elections.
The attack in Karbala, which wounded the representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, came hours after the campaign kicked off, with Iraqi interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi announcing his candidacy. Allawi's defense minister accused Iranian and Syrian intelligence agents of helping insurgents in Iraq.
Also on Wednesday, a government official in Baghdad said Saddam's notorious right-hand man, Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali," would be the first to appear in court next week to face charges for crimes allegedly committed during Saddam's 35-year dictatorship. Allawi said earlier that formal indictments could be issued against some of Saddam's top deputies next month _ just ahead of the Jan. 30 election.
The blast south of Baghdad underlined worries over security during the campaign and the election, with insurgents expected to derail the vote creating a national assembly.
While Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority has welcomed an election it will likely dominate, Sunni Arabs have expressed fears they will be eclipsed and some have called for a boycott of the vote. Al-Sistani has backed a coalition of major Shiite political parties that has put forward a list of candidates and is expected to do well in the first national election since Saddam's fall.
Sunni militants have been accused in past attacks against Shiites and their holy sites. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Wednesday's bombing.
The blast went off at the western gate of the Imam Hussein Shrine in Karbala, killing seven people and wounding 31, said Dr. Abdul-Abbas Al-Timimi, director of Al-Hussein hospital.
Al-Sistani's representative, Sheik Abdul Mahdi al-Karbalayee, was among the wounded, and an al-Sistani spokesman said al-Karbalayee was the intended target of the blast. Several of his bodyguards were among the dead and wounded, the spokesman _ Hamed al-Khafaf _ told Al-Jazeera television.
The Imam Hussein Shrine was one of a number of Shiite holy sites in Karbala and Baghdad targeted in March, when coordinated bombs and suicide blasts hit pilgrims attending a religious festival, killing at least 181. The shrine houses the tomb of Imam Hussein, the son of Imam Ali, Shiism's founder.
The city, 50 miles south of Baghdad, was also the scene of heavy fighting in April between the militia of anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and multinational forces.
Days after the al-Sistani-backed United Iraqi Alliance announced its candidates in the election, Allawi announced he was entering the race at the head of a list of 240 candidates meant to highlight his appeal to Iraq's diverse and sometimes fractious ethnic and religious groups.
Surrounded by supporters in tribal garb, clerical turbans and suits, the U.S.-backed prime minister pledged to work for national unity and move away from "religious and ethnic fanaticism" if elected to the assembly on Jan. 30.
"By depending on God, and with a firm determination and based on strong confidence in the abilities of our people, we are capable of confronting the difficulties and challenges and of making a bright future for our honorable people," Allawi said.
Allawi said his party would push for the eventual withdrawal of multinational forces "according to a set timetable."
In the election, each faction will win a number of seats in the new assembly proportional to the percentage of votes it wins nationwide _ meaning those highest up on each faction's list are most likely to get seats. The groups that end up strongest in the assembly will be in a powerful position as the body picks the next government and draws up the nation's new constitution.
The United Iraqi Alliance _ headed by Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, a cleric who leads the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution party _ is dominated by religious Shiites, though it also includes a few Sunnis and other minorities. Allawi, a secular Shiite, emphasized the broad nature of his list.
Elder Sunni statesman Adnan Pachachi, who had previously called for a postponement of the elections, said Wednesday he will take part. Pachachi, a former foreign minister, heads the Independent Democratic Gathering and said he would lead a list of at least 70 candidates.
Another Sunni group _ the more religious Iraqi Islamic Party _ has also put forward its own candidates. Wednesday was the cutoff day for parties or independents to register as candidates in the elections.
Meanwhile, Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan accused Iranian and Syrian agents of cooperating with former Saddam security operatives and Iraq's top terror figure _ Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi _ "to run criminal operations in Iraq."
"Key to terrorism is in Iran, which is the number one enemy for Iraq," Shaalan said. "They are fighting us because we want to build freedom and democracy and they want to build an Islamic dictatorship and have turbaned clerics to rule in Iraq."
Iran and Syria have rejected U.S. and Iraqi claims they support Iraq's insurgency, but Damascus has said it is unable to fully close its long, porous border with its neighbor.
Asked about Shaalan's charges, President Bush told reporters, "we will continue to make it clear to both Syria and Iran ... that meddling in the internal affairs of Iraq is not in their interest."
Shaalan also sharply criticized the United Iraqi Alliance for links to Iran. He took a swipe at an architect of the 228-member coalition and leading member, nuclear physicist Hussain al-Shahristani, describing him as the "leader of an Iranian list" that wants to Iraq to be run similar to its Shiite-dominated neighbor.
Meanwile, Kurdish officials demanded that provincial elections that are being held at the same time as the national vote be postponed.
The Kurds will boycott the provincial elections if their demands were not met, said Kamal Kirkukly, a council member and an official of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, in an interview with The Associated Press.
Among their demands is the return of displaced Kurds to the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk, where Saddam's regime drove out many Kurds and replaced them with Arabs from other areas. The Kurds apparently want to solidify their demographic presence in the city before any vote. There was no suggestion the Kurds would boycott the national vote.
In the latest violence, a U.S. Marine was killed in action Tuesday in Anbar province, west of Baghdad, while a U.S. soldier died from gunshot wounds sustained during a convoy mission south of Baghdad.
As of Wednesday, at least 1,304 U.S. military personnel have died since the war began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
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