AFP, Najaf, Iraq, Feb 27, 2010 – Iraq’s top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani called on his fellow clerics on Saturday 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 Shiite 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 Shiite 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 Nuri al-Maliki defected with several allies to form a rival grouping, leaving a rump Shiite 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.
Najafi also slammed ’corruption and negligence in most fields providing services to the population like water, electricity, agriculture, oil and ration cards.’
Khuzai, acting Commerce Minister Safaldin al-Safi, who is responsible for the ration card system, and Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani are all standing for election as part of Maliki’s State of Law bloc.
Electricity Minister Karim Wahid and Agriculture Minister Ali al-Bahadli are also seen as close to the premier.
NIA leaders rejoiced at their rivals’ discomfort. ’Ayatollah Najafi is looking after the interests of Iraqis and has clearly identified the sources of incompetence and corruption,’ said former deputy prime minister Ahmed Chalabi.
Asked if he thought Najafi’s views reflected broader thinking among the top Shiite clergy, Chalabi said: ’I don’t know exactly how they work but I’m sure they talk to each other.’
Sistani has always argued that the Marjaiya should restrict itself to spiritual guidance and not adopt a political role like that championed in Iran by the leader of the 1979 revolution Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and continued by his successor as supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.