Source: Reuters
* Association with Saddam difficult to shake
* Sunnis expected to participate in March poll
* Broad political participation seen crucial to peace
By Waleed Ibrahim
AWJA, Iraq, March 4 (Reuters) - The head of Saddam Hussein's tribe hesitates to talk about the ousted Sunni dictator, wary of angry reactions. But what can he do to shake the association with a man who brutally repressed Iraq's new Shi'ite leaders?
"Saddam was a member of this tribe and he always will be," Munaf Ali al-Nida said in an interview in his mansion overlooking the Tigris river, as a deeply divided country headed toward a national election this Sunday.
"We want to put the past behind us and make a new beginning. Saddam died, but the tribe goes on and it always will. What do they want? Do they want to eradicate this tribe just because Saddam was one of its members?"
Saddam's overthrow at the hands of U.S. invaders in 2003 led to years of bloodshed between once dominant Sunnis and the Shi'ite majority brought to power by the U.S. invasion. Sunni resentment at their perceived disenfranchisement after the last national vote in 2005 fuelled a ferocious insurgency.
Violence has fallen sharply, including in the largely Sunni province of Salahuddin where Saddam's tribe is based and where he and his sons are buried. But the March 7 vote will be a major test of the fragile sectarian peace and tenuous democracy.
To mark a new start, Nida is running for parliament. It's a big change from the last election, when no one from Saddam's home village of Awja participated in the vote.
"Anyone who dared to do that would have been killed," said Nida, dressed in a flowing white robe and traditional Arab headdress, as he fingered an expensive set of prayer beads.
"I myself was not convinced about the election at that time ... Now the situation is different in terms of security and politics. I believe that now even the insurgent groups here support participation in this election."U.S. and U.N. officials hope full Sunni participation in the election will help heal the wounds of sectarian warfare and put Iraq on the track to lasting peace.
TENSIONS FLARED
Sectarian tensions flared in the run-up to the vote after a panel dominated by Shi'ite politicians banned dozens of candidates for alleged links to Saddam's Baath party.
The list included several prominent Sunnis, including secular candidate Saleh al-Mutlaq. Mutlaq's party briefly vowed to boycott the election, but then changed its mind.
There is little sign in staunchly Sunni areas of Iraq of a willingness to boycott.
In the vast western desert province of Anbar, once the heartland of the Sunni-based insurgency, many voters said they were intent on ousting the incumbent religious parties they blame for corruption and sectarian strife.
"Change must occur," Tawfeeq Shafi, imam of Falluja's al-Farouq mosque, said.(Additional reporting by Fadhel al-Badrani in Ramadi and Sabah al-Bazee; Writing by Michael Christie; Editing by Alistair Lyon and Dominic Evans)
"I am afraid violence will return to Anbar if change is not achieved. This is our sole goal in this election."
As Anbar goes, many Iraqis believe, so goes Iraq's Sunni minority, whose political dominance of the area that became Iraq under British stewardship dates to the Ottoman empire.
"We tribal leaders will do everything we can to urge people to vote," Ahmed al-Jasir said from Anbar's provincial capital of Ramadi. "We have been standing by and watching the consequences of decisions that we had no role in taking."
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