For the first time since the formation of the new Iraqi state, the Sunni coalitions and parties are split. As the general election approaches, the long-standing Sunni Arab List no longer exists in Iraq.

The Iraqi Accord Front, the largest group of Sunni Arabs in the previous government, has disintegrated, with many influential forces splitting to join the four major coalitions. As a consequence, the Accord was forced to ally with Shia parties.

In the five years since the elections, several divisions hit the Accord Front and they lost prominent Sunni personalities to Ayad Allawi’s list, to the Iraqi Unity Alliance and to the State of Law and Iraq National Alliance.

Ayad al-Sammarai, the parliamentary speaker and a leading figure in the Iraqi Accord Front expects the group, which remains the largest single Sunni unit, to at least retain its current share of the vote if not to increase but acknowledges:

“The Sunni voters possess an electoral awareness that may motivate them to search for diversity, which could likely reduce the size of the Accord Front in the future.”

He is not disturbed by the emergence of strong Sunni opposition.

“It is a healthy and positive development for the entire political process in Iraq,” he says.

In the 2005 elections, the Accord Front participated in the elections on its own, winning 44 seats out of 275 in parliament, while the remaining Sunni forces boycotted the political process.

Al-Sammarai does not believe Sunni-Sunni alliances will emerge after the elections. The picture, he thinks, is still unclear because the coalitions are mostly comprised of intercrossing blocs, he says.

Osama Al-Nujaifi, a leading National Iraqi List figure, who participated in the provincial councils elections of 2009 and won the majority of Naynawa’s seats, refuses to be labeled a “Sunni politician”. He sees those titles as a thing of the past and prefers to be called an Arab Iraqi Nationalist Politician.

“The Accord Front no longer represents the Sunni Arabs, just as the other coalitions do not represent Shia Arabs, because of the new political setup,” he argues.

Regarding the affiliation of the majority of the Iraqi list’s leading figures he says that it is false to claim they are all Sunni. Rather, he argues, the leadership is split perfectly between Sunni and Shia.

“Our leadership is evenly distributed, and there are ten prominent leaders in the Iraqi Movement; five Shiaa and the other five are Sunni,” he said. “In addition to Mr. Allawi, there are Hasan Al-Alawi, Hussein Al-Shaalan, Iskandar Watout and Abdul Karim Al-Muhamadawi.” He added: “On the Sunni side, we have Tariq Al-Hashimi, Rafi’e Al-Eisawai, Osma Al-Nujaifi, Tawfiq Al-Ubaydi and Abdullah Al-Yawar.”

Ibrahim Al-Sumaidai, a leading figure in the Iraq Unity alliance, believes the sectarian divisions indicated by Al-Nujaifi vis-à-vis the Iraqi bloc leaderships “clearly show that Iraqi Bloc leaders have not been able to rise above their sectarian tendencies.”

He continues: “Division based on Shia Sunni distribution is the most obvious indication of sectarianism, reflecting a flagrant deficiency in the composition of the Iraqi list. The sectarian division in the Iraqi list will be more visible after the elections.”

Al-Sumaidai admits that the same sectarian configuration exists in his list.

“The Iraqi list is basically constituted of a Sunni majority. It’s not the only one in this regard. As a matter of fact, the Iraq Unity Coalition centers around a Sunni majority,” he concludes.

Iraq Unity Coalition is comprised of Sunni Endowment Chairman, Ahmad Abdul Ghafour Al-Sammarai, former Parliament Speaker, Mahmoud Al-Mashhadani (Sunni) and the head of Awakening Groups Ahmad Abu Reesheh (Sunni). The coalition is chaired by Interior Minister Jawad Al-Boolani ( Shiaa).

Mr. Al-Sumaidai believes that "Iraq Unity Coalition's role, like the Iraqi Bloc, will be restricted to the Sunni arena, in case Mr. Jawad Al-Boolani fails to rally the Southern ( Shiite) street around him," which means, according to Al-Sumaidaie, that these lists " will not be capable of achieving any purely national projects, if things go in that direction."

Given the present electoral map, and distribution of Sunni personalities among several coalitions, as well as their declaration of partnerships with Shiaa leaderships, the National Accord Front remains the only purely "Sunni" bloc.

In this context, Al-Sumaidai says the Accord "overtly declared its sectarian identity, and did not practically need to patch up itself with other components, as did the other lists." "It will therefore be the lame duck in the forthcoming political configuration," he adds.



(Photo by Sabah Arar /Getty Imagesr)