Iraq's most powerful Shiite Muslim cleric urged Iraqis to vote in provincial elections this month, the first since 2005, even if they were disenchanted with the performance of the politicians they elected last time, his office said Monday. Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, whose words carry the force of law among devout Shiites, reiterated his neutrality in the vote, which will redraw lines of power in a country slowly recovering from six years of war. Coming in the middle of a pitched campaign, the statement seemed aimed at deflating the attempt by parties -- sometimes subtle, sometimes not -- to claim his mantle, support that was crucial in empowering a religious Shiite coalition in 2005.
"His eminence urges all residents, men and women, to participate in the coming elections, and stresses not to boycott it despite not being totally satisfied with the previous electoral experience," a statement from Sistani's office said.
It added that Sistani "stands at an equal distance from all candidates."
The use of religious symbols or sites is banned in the campaign for the Jan. 31 vote, but everyone from the Communist Party to the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, a powerful Shiite party, has resorted to Shiite imagery. One Supreme Council banner in Baghdad declared that a person should vote for its list of candidates because he is the "son of the marjaiya," a reference to the authority of Sistani and his most senior colleagues.
"People understand who's closer to the marjaiya and they can distinguish between parties on that basis," said Abdul Hussein Abtan, a Supreme Council candidate and deputy governor of Najaf, a sacred city in Shiite Islam and the home of Sistani.