Iraq''s top Shi''ite cleric hints at renewed opposition to Maliki return

BAGHDAD, May 4

Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, suggested on Friday that he had not abandoned his opposition to former prime minister Nuri al-Maliki, who is bidding to return to power in elections on May 12.

Making a rare intervention in politics, Sistani in his weekly sermon that Iraqis should “avoid falling into the trap of those ... who are corrupt and those who have failed, whether they have been tried or not”.

Sistani, whose opinion is sacrosanct for millions of members of Iraq's Shi'ite majority and beyond, said he was keeping an “equal distance” from all candidates and did not identify any of them by name in his sermon, which was read by one of his representatives, Sheikh Abdulmehdi al-Karbalai, and broadcast on television.

But the reference to Maliki was clear from his mention of the collapse of security forces in the face of Islamic State militants in 2014, when Maliki was in power.

Sistani successfully blocked Maliki from taking the premiership after winning the 2014 election, paving the way for the appointment of the current prime minister, Haider al-Abadi.

“Past electoral experiments were marked by failures, many of those who were elected or appointed to high positions in the government abused their power and took part in spreading corruption and squandering public money,” Sistani also said.

Abadi successfully led the campaign to defeat Islamic State, last year recapturing the city of Mosul, their main stronghold in northern Iraq, with the backing of a US-led coalition.

The May 12 election is shaping up as a three-man contest between Abadi, Maliki and Shi'ite paramilitary leader Hadi al-Amiri. Reuters