BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraqs leading Sunni Arab political bloc announced on Thursday that it will take part in next months general election and urged its followers to turn out in numbers. The about-face by the National Dialogue Front (NDF) comes just five days after it said it was withdrawing from the vote, only the second parliamentary poll since Saddam Hussein was ousted by a US-led invasion in 2003. We call on the Iraqi people to vote massively to avoid fraud, despite our reservations concerning the electoral process, Saleh al-Mutlak, a Sunni MP who has been barred from standing for re-election on the grounds of alleged links to the Baath party of now executed dictator Saddam Hussein, told AFP. Mutlak, who was among 456 candidates who were barred, highlighted the exclusion of candidates, which is hurting the legitimacy of the election. Meanwhile, more than 20,000 army officers who served under deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein are to be reinstated, a defence ministry spokesman said on Thursday. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki gave his consent to reinstate 20,400 officers who had made a request, Mohammad al-Askari said. The United States dissolved Saddams 450,000-strong army shortly after the 2003 US-led invasion. Askari said the requests had come since 2008 from former officers either still living in Iraq or residing abroad. The reinstated officers now had one month and 45 days to report for duty.