Sadrists assert attempts to remove them from elections

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The spokesman for the parliamentary Sadrist bloc said on Thursday that there are some bodies which seek to remove his bloc from the upcoming provincial elections. “The Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC) and the Daawa party as well as some governmental bodies try to send the Sadrist bloc away from the upcoming elections,” Ahmad al-Massoudi told IraqiNews.com news agency. “As election day approaches, a wide-scale arresting campaign started against hundreds of the Sadrist bloc,” he noted, asserting that no bloc could be removed through targeting it politically. The provincial council elections are scheduled to be held on January 31 in Iraq’s 18 provinces save Kirkuk and the three autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region provinces of Arbil, Sulaimaniya and Duhuk.   SH (P)/SR 1