In mid-January, a somewhat unknown body called the Justice and Accountability Commission (hai'at al-masaala wal-'adala) or the de-Ba'thification Commission in its earlier incarnation, issued an order barring 511 candidates from the Iraqi general election because of membership of, or sympathy, with the dissolved Ba'th Party which ruled Iraq for 35 years. The chairman of the commission is Dr. Ahmed Chalabi and its executive director is 'Ali Al-Lami, both candidates for election to parliament on behalf of the Shi'a coalition, the Iraqi National Coalition (al-i'tilaf al-iraqi al-watani). The exclusion order raised questions whether it was politically driven to exclude a number of key political figures, particularly Sunni politicians, who were viewed as a threat to the Shi'a dominance of the political process. Critics see Iran behind the barring order, since Chalabi is considered one of Iran's closest allies in Iraq.
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