Mosul: A woman planning to stand in Iraq`s
March 7 general election was gunned down on Sunday in the restive northern city of Mosul, police said, just days before
campaigning is officially due to start.
Suha Abdul Jarallah, a candidate on the list of
pro-Western former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, was shot dead
as she left a house in the Ras al-Jadda neighbourhood in
central Mosul, 350 kilometres north of Baghdad.
"She was getting out of a relatives` home when she was
shot dead by an unidentified gunman who then fled in a car
carrying two other men," the officer said. It was not
immediately clear if the killing was politically motivated.
Campaigning for the delayed election, the second
parliamentary vote since the US-led ouster of dictator Saddam
Hussein, is set to begin on February 12.
The past week has been dominated by a row over a judicial
panel`s decision to allow around 500 candidates accused of
having links to Saddam`s outlawed Baath party to stand after
all, having previously been banned from the ballot.
Iraqi MPs plan to meet tomorrow to debate the matter
after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who branded the ruling
"illegal," recalled parliament.
Allawi, a secular Shiite and a former Baathist, was
provisionally appointed premier by Washington in June 2004 and held the post for just under a year.
The election, which was originally set for January, is
seen as a test of reconciliation between the Sunni minority
dominant under executed strongman Saddam and the Shiite
majority represented by Maliki`s government.
PTI
