BAGHDAD — An influential Shiite movement did not back either front-runner today in a poll on who to support for Iraq’s next prime minister, further muddying the political situation in the aftermath of the inconclusive March elections.
In a survey, supporters of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr voted 24 percent for him to support Shiite politician Ibrahim al-Jaafari, who was interim prime minister from 2005 to 2006, the movement’s spokesman Salah al-Obeidi announced.
Iraq’s incumbent Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his chief rival Ayad Allawi received only 10 percent and 9 percent of votes respectively.
Al-Obeidi left open whether al-Sadr would follow the guidance of his supporters in the course of future negotiations, saying that “each event has its own way,” but the results seemed certain to at least add further complications to the already long drawn-out negotiating period that has followed the March 7 election.
Allawi’s bloc came out ahead in the vote by two seats over al-Maliki’s coalition, but both parties are far short of the necessary majority needed to govern alone. The candidates are now scrambling to muster the support needed to form a government.
The poll of al-Sadr’s supporters was widely viewed as a way for the cleric to give himself the opportunity to back someone other than al-Maliki, under the guise of following the people’s will.
Al-Sadr rose to prominence after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, forging a political dynasty based on the network and prestige of his father, a leading Shiite cleric killed by Saddam Hussein in 1999.
Many see him now as a potential kingmaker, after his followers won at least 39 seats in the 325-seat parliament in the March 7 vote, up 10 seats from their current standing. That makes them the largest bloc within the Iraqi National Alliance, a Shiite religious coalition that placed third in the race.
There has been deep enmity between the Sadrists and al-Maliki since he turned on al-Sadr’s powerful militia in 2008, despite receiving key support from al-Sadr in 2006 when he formed his government.
Winning Kurdish support could also be key in helping either al-Maliki or Allawi form the next government.
Today, a representative of Iraq’s Kurdish President Jalal Talabani met with the country’s most revered and politically influential Shiite leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Najaf for talks on the process of forming new government.
As he emerged from the talks, Talabani’s adviser Fakhri Karim said the cleric had told him that he was pushing for all factions to be involved in the political process.
Al-Sistani “stressed the necessity of the participation of all the parties in the political process without excluding any,” Karim told reporters without elaborating.
Renewed sectarian violence has broken out amid the struggle for power — most recently with a series of bombings Tuesday that killed 54 people and injured 187. More than 120 have been killed in a five-day spree of attacks in and around the capital, which Iraqi and U.S. officials have blamed on al-Qaida insurgents seizing on gaping security lapses created by the political deadlock.
Police investigating the Tuesday attacks said in one case, the suspected bomber rented a first-floor apartment in one of the buildings a week ago and likely rigged it with explosives.
Police are working on the theory that the other buildings were attacked the same way, an investigator told the AP on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk with the press, suggesting that the bombings were carefully planned an executed.
In reaction, the government said it would bolster enforcement of an Iraqi law that requires local police or other officials to approve any rental contracts before people move into a new home.
The recent violence, which has largely targeted families and homes, has been reminiscent of the sectarian bloodshed that tore Iraq apart from 2005 to 2007 and prompted the United States to send tens of thousands more troops to the front lines.
Hundreds of mourners today marched through the streets the predominantly Shiite area of Baghdad that was the focus of the attacks in funeral processions.
In one procession, families and friends of one victim carried his coffin and picture over their heads through the narrow streets, walking to the cadence of a gun being fired into the air in time to a drum.
Nearby, the Iraqi-flag draped coffin of another victim was carried to a car to be taken away for burial, as mourners wailed and fired gunshots into the air.
“The whole district is in mourning because even if you didn’t have a relative killed, it might have been a neighbor or a friend,” said shop-owner Saif Hassan, who blamed the government for not providing better security.
“Instead of improving our area with reconstruction and services, we face bombings and destruction,” the 25-year-old said.
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