While calls mount among Sunnis to postpone this month's Iraqi election, the reclusive Shi'ite leader Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani is mobilizing thousands of clerics to get out the vote.
The move, designed to ensure election dominance of a Shi'ite list heavily influenced by Sistani, shows his influence in Iraqi politics despite his support for separation of religious and political authority.
If the list, mostly composed of Shi'ites, sweeps the polls as expected, Iraq's once dominant Arab Sunnis, many of whom distrust Sistani, could be excluded from power.
Sistani's flexing of political muscle has also alarmed nationalist Iraqis suspicious of Iran, with which Iraq fought a 1980-1988 war that cost a million lives on both sides, and anti-establishment Shi'ites.
Supporters of Sistani say he was forced to intervene in the election to balance U.S. influence and ensure that the next constitution sticks, forming the basis for a federal, democratic Iraq guided by universal values of Islam.
``He is adamant about limiting the U.S. role. He sees his role ending at drafting a sovereign constitution,'' said one supporter.
Sistani is likely to wield enormous influence in drafting the new constitution, but his followers say he remains averse to political power and has kept his distance from U.S. officials.
``ISLAMIC ELEMENTS''
Although he favors ``Islamic elements'' in the constitution, they say he does not want an Iranian-style Islamic republic and jurisprudence feared by the Americans and many Iraqis.
``Sistani has always thought the disasters that have plagued Iraq have been partly due to glaring weaknesses on the constitutional side. He wants long-term stability,'' said Iraqi National Congress official Haidar al-Mousawi.
Clerics and Shi'ite politicians say Sistani has ordered the seminaries in the holy city of Najaf to close and send thousands of their students preaching for votes, effectively for the Shi'ite list.
The Jan. 30 polls will elect a national assembly which will appoint a government.
``This is the first time Sistani has thrown his weight behind a political cause like this. His approach is indirect as always, but it is understood among the seminary hierarchy that he wants the votes for the Shi'ite list,'' said a seminary official in Najaf, a main center of Shi'ite learning.
``Last day of classes was Saturday. Sistani and his son Reda are careful not to appear favoring a certain list. It is a bit ironic. Shi'ite list posters hang a few meters from Sistani's house showing his picture.'' Sistani's critics say his quiet maneuvering has gone too far, strengthening Islamist Shi'ite parties that are eroding secularism, which Saddam Hussein had promoted and then gradually abandoned during years of U.N. sanctions.
``Considering the ignorance of a considerable number of people of the political process, using religion to market election lists will be popular,'' Iraqi academic Khader Atwan wrote in Azzaman newspaper.