Divisions threaten new start

BAGHDAD — The Iraqi National Convention — the first large-scale democratic exercise in the new Iraq — is off to a divisive start.

Less than a week before the convention convenes, political and ethnic power struggles have crippled the process in some regions, and organizers acknowledge that it is still not clear who will represent many of Iraq’s provinces at the three-day meeting, scheduled to start some time in the next few days.

The 1,000 delegates are supposed to select from among themselves 79 members of a national assembly, which in theory could exercise sufficient power to shape the Iraq’s short-term political future and long-term national character. The remaining members will be the 20 surviving Iraqi Governing Council members, and Fuad Masoum, a Kurd who is organizing the process.

The national assembly, a sort of Iraqi parliament, will advise the caretaker Allawi government and have the authority to veto legislation and appoint alternate ministers, who will be called on only in the event of a death or resignation. The 100-member group will also determine the country’s budget for 2005 and draft Iraq’s constitution.

“This is a very visible show of democracy,” Mr. Masoum, director of the National Convention, said in an interview over the weekend. “It will be an important thing for the Iraqi people.”

But the selection of 1,000 delegates has been difficult, as Iraqis accuse organizers of favoring well-connected exiles and members of the CPA-appointed Governing Council, a temporary body that had little credibility with the Iraqi people.

In their final days of power, the former Governing Council decided to grant themselves positions on the committee that is organizing the three-day convention, as well as seats on the national assembly it will select.

That power play has provoked anger in prominent intellectuals and upstart political parties, who say they declined invitations to attend the conference rather than “legitimize” it with their presence.

Sadoun al-Dulame, executive director of the Iraq Center for Research and Strategic Studies, a polling outfit, said he refused to participate after seeing that no one political party has more than 10 percent support among ordinary Iraqis.

The 100-member assembly was created by the U.S.-drafted, Governing Council-approved Transitional Administrative Law, which governs Iraq through the January elections.

U.S. and Iraqi officials say that progress in Iraq’s political sphere will calm persistent attacks by anti-government militias, and raise the confidence of Iraqis in the interim government and their future.

But for now, they are so concerned about security threats that the exact location and timing of the conference — a massive logistical challenge involving lodging, food, interpretation, and meeting space for more than 1,500 people — remain a closely guarded secret.

While most Iraqis are only dimly aware of the looming conference, delegates, aspiring politicians and political parties are frantically scrambling to improve their position and expand their power base.

The three-day conference is designed to be the start of a national dialogue on issues ranging from security to reconstruction, to transitional justice and the drafting of the country’s permanent constitution.