A sign of hope in Iraq

There is more than one audience for recent declarations from the United Iraqi Alliance -- the electoral slate associated with the Shi'ite Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani -- rejecting the model of clerical rule in Iraq. A statement yesterday from a coalition spokesman saying that a religious form of government is not an aim of the Alliance ''and will not be in the future" was clearly intended for American ears. US authorities have made it plain that they do not want to see either a clerical regime on the Iranian model or an Iraqi government under Iranian influence to emerge from the elections scheduled for Sunday.

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But the coalition's disavowal of theocratic ambitions would be a political necessity even if US occupation authorities were not obsessively wary of anything that might extend the reach of Iran's Islamic Republic. Within the Iraqi electorate there are key constituencies, comprising a large majority, that also need to be assured that if they vote for the Alliance list with its major Shi'ite parties, they will not be voting for the creation of a theocratic state in thrall to Tehran.

Despite the dangers looming over Sunday's election and its aftermath, this Iraqi consensus about the need to avoid a government of religious authorities is a good thing. It is a positive sign that various groupings in Iraq's fragmented society -- each for its own reasons -- would like to establish an Iraqi version of what Western societies regard as the separation of church and state. No less positive is the spectacle of Iraqi politicians eager for office doing what must be done to mold their platforms to the voters' wishes.

As it is, candidates and voters alike will have to withstand lethal attacks from Ba'athist and Islamist counterrevolutionaries to forge the legitimacy that can only come from an election. Then members of the national assembly will have to write a constitution that preserves the political and territorial unity of Iraq, a process that will require them to balance justified Kurdish demands for regional autonomy against Arab attachment to a strong central government. And those representatives will also have to find a way to balance Iraqis' yearning for security against the widespread longing to be rid of US and other foreign forces in Iraq's cities and towns.

There would be little chance of clearing any of these hurdles if Iraq's politicians and political parties were not prepared to practice the call-and-response habits of democracy. So it is a hopeful sign that aspiring politicians from disparate factions have been able to hear and respond to a common wish among Iraqis to be governed by secular leaders and to avoid a civil war.