Baghdad ? Iraq on Friday announced the reinstatement of 20,000 former army officers who were dismissed after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, in a gesture toward healing sectarian resentment over the disbanding of Saddam Hussein’s military.

But the timing of the announcement raised suspicions that Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his allies were just currying votes in upcoming parliamentary election.

The skepticism underscored how bitter feelings have become between Iraq’s factions ahead of the March 7 vote. Many had hoped the vote would be a chance to move past the Shiite-Sunni divisions that have wracked Iraq since Saddam’s fall nearly seven years ago, but instead the mistrust between the two sides has become starker.

Al-Maliki is facing Sunni anger after a Shiite-led commission barred 440 candidates — mostly Sunnis — from running because of suspected ties to Saddam’s former ruling party.

In theory, the military reinstatements should be good news for Sunnis. The 2003 order by Iraq’s then-American governor L. Paul Bremer to dissolve Saddam’s 400,000-strong army — the largest in the Middle East on the eve of the 2003 invasion — is widely seen as one of the factors that fueled Sunnis’ sense of alienation with the new Iraq from the very start.

Over past years, thousands of officers from the disbanded army have trickled back to service in an ongoing process of reintegration.