BAGHDAD - The threat of a unified Sunni Arab boycott of next weekâs constitutional vote in Iraq receded on Saturday as Sunni leaders failed to agree on how to oppose the US-backed document.After a meeting in a Baghdad mosque, Sunni leaders said they hoped those voters who do decide to participate will vote âNoâ.
The lack of consensus revealed divisions in the Sunni community, with some groups insisting on a boycott to rob the referendum of legitimacy, and others saying a massive Sunni âNoâ vote was the only way to properly defeat it. âWe do not ask the Iraqi people to boycott or not,â said Harith Al Dhari, the head of the Muslim Clericsâ Association, one of the Sunni groups arguing strategy ahead of the Oct. 15 referendum.
âWe ask them to do everything they legitimately can to reject the draft of the constitution,â he told Reuters, leaving followers to choose whether that is to vote âNoâ, or to stay at home.
Several hundred monitors, including from the Arab League, are set to oversee the referendum, which will be the largest organisational effort Iraq has undertaken since Januaryâs election, when more than eight million people cast ballots.
Amr Moussa, the head of the Arab League, told BBC radio on Saturday that the country was close to civil war and said there seemed to be no strategy for bringing rival groups together. âThe situation is so tense ... a civil war could erupt at any moment, although some people would say it is already there.â
| So the Sunnis had better learn to get along, doncha think? |
Cars will be banned from moving between provinces and no civilians, even those with permits, will be allowed to carry weapons. Tens of thousands of Iraqi police and soldiers will be on duty to protect more than 6,000 polling sites, with US and other foreign troops backing up if needed.