A new bid to delay Iraq's vote

Until recently, the struggle over Iraq's election date has divided along sectarian lines. Sunnis, whose religious authorities have largely disdained the elections, want a delay. Shiites, whose powerful religious leaders pushed hard for the poll, won't budge from the scheduled date of Jan. 30.

The stalemate is exacerbating tensions between Iraq's Sunni minority and its majority Shiites, keen to take power after years of rule by a Sunni elite.

It's also put President Bush in a tricky position. Any delay would mean US troops stay longer. So far, Mr. Bush has insisted that elections go forward on time, despite a growing groundswell for a delay from Sunni moderates, who fear that violence will keep Sunnis from participating in the ballot.

But a moderate Shiite cleric has been quietly floating a proposal that could break this dead- lock. Sheikh Fatih Kashif al-Ghitta, a cleric from the Iraqi holy city of Najaf, is trying to gather support for a delay that would last no longer than April. If the delay is accompanied by a strict timeline and guarantees of no further postponements, Mr. Ghitta believes it would help increase voter participation.

"The delay would be effective if it is part of a program to end terrorism in Iraq," says Ghitta in a phone interview from Baghdad. "It would give us a reasonable period of time so that people will feel safe to go out and vote. At the same time, there would be another month or two to organize the elections."

The debate comes at a crucial moment for Sunni-Shiite relations. Iraq's preeminent religious leader, Shiite Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has managed to pull together a unified slate of mostly Shiite candidates that looks poised to sweep the Jan. 30 ballot.

On Thursday, Sistani's representatives announced that the Shiite slate would include members of the three main Shiite exile parties, Dawa and the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), and the Iraqi National Congress. The list includes some Sunnis and Kurds as well, but no major Sunni political movements.

"The Bush administration has been insisting on elections Jan. 30, and I don't see any signs of flexibility there," says Juan Cole, an Iraq expert at University of Michigan. "There is no reason to think that the [security] situation will be better in April than it is in January. And I think this is the subtext of the Bush administration's reluctance to change the date. One cleric in Najaf who's not a grand Ayatollah is not going to be able to make the situation different."

Ghitta's plan could help alleviate those fears. His proposal is simple: Delay the elections until the end of April, giving the interim government, election commission, and Sunni politicians more time to build greater voter participation. But if elections still aren't possible by the end of April, Iraq's current interim government must agree to step down.

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