Top Shia cleric urges clergy to stay neutral in Iraq vote
Web posted at: 2/28/2010 6:59:2
Source ::: AFP
NAJAF: Iraq's top Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani called on his fellow clerics yesterday to stay neutral in next month's general election after one launched a withering attack on close allies of the prime minister.

"I renew my appeal to people linked to the Marjaiya (the Shia spiritual leadership) to maintain a strict neutrality towards political parties," Sistani said in a message to his representatives across Iraq released by his office in the shrine city of Najaf.

"We have heard some teachers and students in the Hawza (the leading Shia seminaries in Najaf) have been attributing to His Eminence Ali Sistani sympathy for certain lists taking part in the election. "I deny that categorically and I ask that my appeal be widely circulated." Sistani's office said that to underscore his call for neutrality the grand ayatollah had decided not to receive any politician during the campaign for the March 7 election.

The four-strong Marjaiya headed by Sistani backed the United Iraqi Alliance in the last parliamentary election in 2005.

But it had not previously endorsed any list for this year's election after Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki defected with several allies to form a rival grouping, leaving a rump Shia bloc now dubbed the National Iraqi Alliance (NIA).

However, on Thursday, one of the other members of the Marjaiya, Ayatollah Bashir Al Najafi, broke ranks, hitting out at a number of key allies of Maliki and accusing them of negligence and corruption. “There are people in the executive authority who have betrayed the country, who have stolen public money or create sectarianism in the country like Education Minister Khudair Al Khuzai,” Najafi said.

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