Explosion marks first day of Iraq campaigns

[leftchick]

http://www.freep.com/news/nw/iraq16e_20041216.htm

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"They are fighting us because we want to build freedom and democracy, and they want to build an Islamic dictatorship and have turbaned clerics rule in Iraq," said Shaalan, who comes from the mostly Shi'ite southern city of Diwaniya.


Sheikh Homam Hamoodi of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq said the comments by Allawi and his defense minister angered members of the United Iraqi Alliance. The alliance -- headed by Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, a cleric who leads the Supreme Council, and backed by al-Sistani -- is dominated by religious Shi'ites.


"We welcome Allawi and our brothers into the field of elections, but we feel that the Iraqi people prefer to choose those who suffered from the oppression of the old regime and who spent their lives in Saddam's dark cells and torture chambers," said Hamoodi, who is also a candidate. Allawi and many of his colleagues lived in exile during much of Hussein's rule.


The elections will choose a 275-member national assembly that will draft a constitution and help supervise national elections for a permanent government by the end of next year. Candidates are forming slates, mostly along ethnic or religious lines, that will divvy up power proportionate to the number of votes received.