Iraq's electoral commission will decide within days whether to ban 15 political parties from running in March polls because their leaders allegedly have links to former dictator Saddam Hussein, a spokesman said Saturday.
The move could threaten attempts to draw former supporters of the insurgency into the political process, a key plank in the U.S. strategy to stabilize the country as American troops withdraw.
Judge Qassim al-Aboudi, a spokesman for the Independent High Electoral Commission, said the body had received complaints over 15 political parties from the committee dedicated to rooting out high-level supporters of the former regime.
The Iraqis are absolutely correct to want to keep Saddam's goons out of the electoral process. But the process will be harmed if the Iraqi government does more than weed out the top level people who led the repression rather than followed or benefited from Baath rule.
Don't forget that this issue doesn't just affect how the Sunni Arabs view democracy. If Shias believe that elections are just a way for hard core Baathists to restore a post-Saddam Sunni Arab rule over Shias, Shias will reject democracy in favor of a Shia strongman who will crush their former slave masters. And Kurds will reject their continued participation as a minority within Iraq if they think either the Baathists could restore their dictatorship or that the Shias will just rule the state without rule of law to protect Kurdish minority rights.
Sunni Arabs must be able to participate in Iraq's new democracy. But the Sunni Arabs have a unique responsibility, based on their bloody history, to prove that they have earned the right to participate in elections.
Turning on the jihadis (after supporting them too long) was just the first step to rehabilitating the image of Sunni Arabs. It was not enough by itself. We need to take a role in getting the Sunni Arabs to take those steps to earn the trust of the Shias and Kurds; and getting the Shias and Kurds to accept Sunni Arabs suitably vetted into the government and electoral process.
