By HAMZA HENDAWI
Associated Press Writers
BAGHDAD – A top Sunni Arab lawmaker banned from running in Iraq’s March 7 election withdrew his entire party from the campaign Saturday and called on other groups to join the boycott, a move that threatened to undermine the credibility of the vote and raise sectarian tensions.
In announcing his decision, Saleh al-Mutlaq seized on U.S. concerns about Iran’s influence in the political process, an allegation likely to resonate with a Sunni community that is historically suspicious of the intentions in Iraq of Tehran’s clerical rulers.
Al-Mutlaq’s National Dialogue Front has 11 seats in the outgoing legislature, the second-largest Sunni bloc in parliament, and fared surprisingly well in provincial elections in January last year. The group is the main Sunni faction of the Iraqi National Movement, the nation’s top secular alliance that has been expected to pose a tough challenge to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Shiite-led coalition.