Leading Iraqi Sunni politician reverses boycott call

Leading Iraqi Sunni lawmaker Saleh al-Mutlaq on Thursday said his party would participate in March parliamentary elections after all, reversing an earlier announcement it would boycott the polls.

In a move that could allay fears of a broader boycott from Sunni Iraqi voters, al-Mutlaq told reporters in Baghdad he was encouraging all Iraqis to vote, and that his party, the Iraqi National Dialogue Front, would participate in the March 7 elections, DPA reported.

He said the party had decided to participate "for the sake of change," and "not to give the liars a chance."

The party last Saturday said it was boycotting the polls, following the Accountability and Justice Commission's decision to ban al-Mutlaq from running because of his past membership in the former ruling Baath Party.

A party spokesman, announcing the party's short-lived boycott, said the decision followed US General Ray Odierno's comments that there was "clear intelligence" that the heads of that commission had close ties to Iran.

Other parties in his Iraqi coalition had announced earlier this week they would participate, reversing their own previous boycott to protest the exclusion of hundreds of candidates for their past ties to the Baath Party, which is now banned under Iraq's constitution.

Explaining that decision in a statement Saturday, the group called on its constituents to give them "an overwhelming victory to institute necessary change."

Al-Mutlaq's party won 11 seats in the 2005 elections, making it the second-largest Sunni bloc in parliament.