THE DISCIPLINE OF DEMOCRACY:

Sunni Anti-Qaeda Sheikhs Vie For West Iraq In Pol: `We are determined to participate to reclaim what we missed out on before`, the Sunni tribal leader said in Ramadi. (Javno, 1/28/09)

Anbar's overwhelmingly Sunni Arab population stayed away from the last vote, which took place months after two devastating U.S. military assaults on Falluja killed hundreds of people and left much of it in ruins.

The central government had to appoint local councillors, most allied to the Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP), the largest Sunni Arab bloc in parliament. Soon after, al Qaeda seized control.

But due in part to local chiefs, like Sulaiman, who eventually teamed up with the U.S. military, al Qaeda was driven out. By trading on their war hero image, the sheikhs hope they will now be rewarded at the polls at the IIP's expense.

"Our goal is to get rid of the IIP," Sheikh Hameed al-Hayyes told Reuters. "We will fight them with all the power we have."

Analysts say they stand a good chance.

"The working assumption is that the IIP will get wiped out in Anbar," said Toby Dodge, an Iraq specialist at London's International Institute for Strategic Studies.

The provincial vote, set to take place in 14 of Iraq's 18 provinces, will apportion 440 seats across the country to councils that elect powerful regional governors.

The Sunni boycott of the last vote also resulted in Kurds controlling the northern province of Nineveh even though they form only a quarter of the population there and in Shi'ites running Diyala province at the expense of Sunnis.

Perhaps understandable after decades of Saddam telling them they were the majority and destined to dominate the Shi'a and Kurds, but the Sunni got a rude awakening at the ballot box and then at the hand of Mookie.

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Posted by Orrin Judd at January 28, 2009 8:53 AM