Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki yesterday unveiled a broad-based political alliance to fight January’s general election, hailing a “historic” moment for a country often torn apart by sectarianism.
The State of Law Coalition, comprised of 40 political parties and groupings, will include candidates from Iraq’s ethnic majority Shiite community as well as Sunni tribal leaders and candidates from other minority groupings.
The establishment of the new electoral list will pit Maliki, a Shiite, against the ruling Shiite-dominated bloc, which the prime minister broke away from in August.
“The formation of this alliance marks a historical turning point in the process of rebuilding the modern Iraqi state ... and represents all Iraqis,” he told a gathering of candidates and tribal leaders in central Baghdad.
“This coalition has personalities who are not aligned to a [single] community or ethnicity,” Maliki said.
With the polls just three months away, Maliki’s coalition includes Sheikh Ahmed Abu Risha, a key Sunni leader who played a major role in reversing the violent insurgency which engulfed Iraq in 2006 and 2007.
The prime minister is also backed by Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani, a Shiite, several other ministers, as well as independents and Kurdish, Christian and Turkmen candidates.
Maliki announced in August he was breaking ranks with his ruling coalition ahead of the election, instead aiming to establish a multi-confessional coalition including tribal Sunni leaders as well as Shiite candidates.
Iraq’s last parliamentary elections in 2005 were seen as strictly divided along sectarian lines, but Maliki hopes a cross-sectarian alliance can bridge a divide which has marred politics and security since the 2003 US-led invasion.
Shiite parties clinched 128 seats in the 275-strong parliament at the 2005 election. Neither Maliki nor his Dawa party stood in January’s provincial elections, which were seen as a de facto referendum on his leadership, with the prime minister instead campaigning for candidates under a State of Law Coalition banner.
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