More than 200 parties register for parliamentary elections

Some 228 coalitions and political entities have registered to participate in Iraqi parliamentary elections scheduled for 15 December, the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq has announced. "We have successfully closed the registration period for those parties participating in elections,” Commission Spokesman Farid Ayar said in Baghdad on Saturday. He added, “There is much more interest and participation than in the last government election.” An earlier election, held in January, was widely boycotted by Sunni parties. The Shi'ite United Iraqi Alliance, made up of the Islamic Daawa party and the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, is the current frontrunner. However, unlike in January’s poll, Grand Ayatollah al-Ali Sistani, one of Iraq's most senior religious Shi'ite figures, announced he would not be endorsing the alliance. The two main Kurdish parties - the Democratic Kurdistan Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, backed by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani - will run together. Meanwhile, former premier Iyad Allawi is running independently, with a party list set to include both Sunni and communist elements. Ayar noted that several minority groups had chosen to compete in the elections individually, rather than through alliances with larger entities. He added, however, that other religious and ethnic groups were working together in hopes of securing a majority in the fledgling parliament. The inclusion of different communities and religious affiliations, said Ayar, "could be a new and important beginning for Iraqi democracy, which would serve to bring more security and development to the country." Iraqis will vote to elect a 275-member national assembly for a four-year term of office. In a reversal of their earlier decision to boycott the election in January, Sunni leaders have pledged full participation this time around. "If this election is fair, we’re going to surprise Iraq by winning a large number of parliamentary seats," Saleh al-Mutalek, spokesman for the Sunni representation in government, said on Saturday. The three main political groupings of Sunni Arabs - who form roughly 20 percent of Iraq's population - have come together to form a coalition dubbed the Iraqi Accord Front. "We will show Iraqis that we represent freedom and an end to the suffering of thousands of families [at the hands of the US-led occupation] in Anbar governorate [in western Iraq]," al-Mutalek said. In a surprise move, radical Shi'ite leader Moqtada al-Sadr, intensely opposed to the US-led occupation of the country, said that some of his political supporters could join the Sunni alliance. Several parties have already begun printing promotional materials in advance of the contest, with television campaigns expected to start imminently. The election follows a 78 percent ‘Yes’ vote in an October referendum which approved a proposed Iraqi national constitution.