Baghdad, Iraq – In what might be a sign of a new political landscape, a major Sunni umbrella group Monday called on its members to register for the next round of elections and take part “despite our reservations.”
Adnan al-Dulaimi, the head of the group, called the Sunni Endowment, said in a briefing in Baghdad that clerics would be asked to issue religious rulings, or fatwas, essentially ordering Sunnis to vote in elections. Among its other functions, the Sunni Endowment is charged with oversight of Sunni Arab mosques and holy sites throughout Iraq, giving it wide influence among clerics.
“I ask all Sunni people to register their names for the next election, because we are in a political battle that depends on the vote,” al-Dulaimi said.
Sunni Arabs largely boycotted the January elections, producing a National Assembly with only a handful of Sunnis, leaving the ethnic group that ruled the country until 2003 with little influence in the government.
The next round of voting will include a referendum on a constitution, a document being hammered out in the National Assembly.
Perhaps as significant as his call for voting, al-Dulaimi explicitly renounced violence as a way for Sunnis to regain power. But as many other Sunni groups have contended, al-Dulaimi said his group is not a minority in Iraq, despite estimates suggesting that Sunnis make up about 20 percent of the population.
Meanwhile, violence continued throughout the capital Monday. A car bomb exploded on a street leading to Baghdad’s treacherous airport road, killing a couple and injuring their son. A roadside bomb in the Zafarania district killed one civilian.
Nearly 250 U.S. and 600 Iraqi soldiers seized 100 suspected insurgents, including at least one Egyptian, during an early- morning raid in neighborhoods near the airport, the military said in a statement.
Iraq’s ethnically based political strife also was on display Monday in Kirkuk, in the north, where more than 2,000 Arabs and Turkmens demonstrated against the Kurdish rule that has settled on the city since the elections in January.
A Kurdish slate won 26 of 41 seats in the city council and recently put in place significant changes in the way the city is run.
Important posts went overwhelmingly to Kurdish officials, claimed Ali Mehdi, a leader of the Turkmen front.
The Turkmens were an Asian people used by the Turks to govern the area during Ottoman rule.
“The current administration, which is formed by Kurdish parties, does not represent the people of Kirkuk,” Mehdi said at the demonstration, in Convention Square.
The Los Angeles Times contributed to this report.