Omar and Mohammed over at Iraq The Model have consistantly covered information related to political progression in Iraq for two years , including the January 05 elections, the consequential October Referendum and are now covering events in the lead-up to the December election of a new Iraqi Administration.

They think it was a good move for Sistani to stay out of the election process and not to endorse any particular movement/group/bloc.

I would agree with them on this. It is a good move. The clergy should not relate itself to groups such as Badr/SCIRI/Da'wa and Al-Sadr's movement- for when these groups let their militia's loose on civilian populations, the clergy and religion would lose the trust of the people, and in a time like this Iraqi's can not afford to lose their faith.

There has been other quality coverage, mostly outlining who is participating in the elections, and outlining the jumps al-Sadr has been making from one alliance to another.

Al-Sadr eventually settled to join SCIRI and Badr's Brigade in an alliance known as the Shiite Bloc. The will be hard to beat in the coming election, because even many shiite's who did not vote for the United Iraqi Alliance(SCIRI/Badr) last time (they didn't have Sadr's support in January) will be voting for the bloc this time.

On the same note though, many people will have learnt their lesson from supporting the current corrupt government, and may shy away from this deeply religious party all-together.

This could be good news for the Kurdish Alliance, were it to form a coalition with Sunni muslim's to create a Multi-Ethnic, Multi-Religion, secular party- even many Shiite would prefer to vote for them.

Deep discussion and debate has yet to fully erupt in the blogosphere, but in the coming weeks I am sure there will be many driving forces, and I am sure that Iraq The Model will be one of them.