Sunnis seek political power in next election to legislate kicking us out

Marginalized Sunnis seek power at the polls

Associated Press- Saturday, December 10, 2005

``It was a political mistake to boycott the previous elections because you cannot change any process, negatively or positively, without participating,'' Hameed al-Azami, 39, said in the barber shop he operates in Baghdad's heavily Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah.

``We used to say that we should not take part in the elections until the occupiers leave,'' he added, referring to the Americans and their international partners. ``What if the occupiers stayed here for 10 years? Will I lose my political right for 10 years?''

"The first thing we are going to do when we enter parliament is put a timetable for foreign troop withdrawal,'' candidate Khalil al-Obeidi said outside Azamiyah's Abu Hanifa Mosque, Sunni Islam's holiest shrine in Iraq. ``People want a better government.''

Al-Obeidi said resistance - the preferred term among Sunnis for the insurgency - is just one of the ways to end the ``occupation.'' Politics, he said, is another.

http://www.registerguard.com/news/2005/12/10/a2.irq.sunnis.1210.p1.php?section=nation_world