Provincial elections are being held in Iraq tomorrow. In the southern city of Najaf, the vote takes place in the midst of on ongoing power struggle, as the BBC's Andrew North reports.
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MARCO WERMAN: I'm Marco Werman and this is The World. Tomorrow could be a key day for democracy in Iraq. Voters will head to the polls throughout the country for provincial elections. It's the first vote in Iraq since 2005. There's much at stake for the country's various political factions. The BBC's Andrew North sent us this report from the southern holy city of Najaf.
ANDREW NORTH: I'm looking up at the incredible main gate, a mass of blue, yellow, white, pink mosaic tiles. Pilgrims coming and going. Just over there, a long queue of women in head-to-toe black robes. Religion is the business of this city and its Shiite religious parties who have traditionally held sway here. But as this weekend's election approaches, they and the other major parties which have dominated Iraqi politics since the US invasion have realized they have lost a lot of support.
SALAH AL-OBEIDI: People have no trust in the propaganda of the political parties, both Islamic and non-Islamic parties.
NORTH: A surprising admission, perhaps, as it comes from Salah Al-Obeidi, who is chief spokesman for the cleric, Muqtadr al-Sadr.
AL-OBEIDI: We have been very afraid about the democratic situation inside Iraq. If the Iraqis does not support the elections that give the vote to the people, gradually we will go back to dictatorship.
NORTH: In effect, Muqtadr al-Sadr and his movement are trying to re-brand themselves. His candidates are not even campaigning under his name but as independents, although many Iraqis remain skeptical about whether they are really changing. This was Najaf four years ago, when militia fighters from Muqtadr al-Sadr's Mahdi army were battling American forces for control. It's now Iraqi security forces who are in charge here, and it's become one of the best secured cities in the country. And the many businesses which depend on the pilgrim traffic are doing a good trade again. There's a shop here sellingcloth for women's black robes or covering robes. There's a jewelry shop with different colored rings, and then over there, prayer mats, prayer beads, and looking down on this are pictures of the man that Shias mourn every year – Imam Hussein. But a new struggle is emerging in the city. The leading Shiite party in Najaf, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, wants to make it the capital of a new self-ruled region in the south. This would encompass all the majority Shiite provinces as well as the key southern oil fields. “We at the Supreme Council believe that it's through elections and federalism that we can achieve salvation for the Iraqi people,†says one of its leading candidates, Sheikh Khalid Al-Nomani. “That way we will not be victimized by centralized government.†But the Supreme Council's plans risk causing a major split with its other Shiite allies. The consequences for Iraq and the new southern region could be even worse, says Luay Nasseri, a candidate for Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki's party in Najaf.
LUAY NASSERI: “We think this is the first step towards dividing Iraq. It's premature to form new regions. We have to let the Iraqi people decide what is better for them.â€
NORTH: We are walking away now from the shrine that's surrounded by pilgrims all the time, many of them Iranians coming from across the border, so that in the shops you hear many of the shopkeepers speaking Farsi. Because of the Supreme Council's close ties to Iran, some critics accuse it of pursuing Tehran's bidding in pushing for the super region of the South. In reality, it's still a long way off happening, even if the party does well in Najaf. But it's a sign that the shape of a new Iraq is still far from settled.
WERMAN: The BBC's Andrew North there, reporting from Najaf, Iraq.
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