Diplomatist Magazine Diplomatist August 2018 | Page 42

SPOTLIGHT
As we notice above, the Sunni parties/ leaders trailed at
the bottom of the list of the major winners in the elections.
This was the byproduct of three primary factors: One, the
Arab Sunnis have come to constitute currently only around
20 percent of Iraq’s population of 38 million. Two, the ouster,
immediately following the American invasion, of the Arab
Baath Party and the Pan-Arabists from power, most of whose
leaders were Sunni, and their primary power bases were in
the Arab Sunni provinces of Iraq, further marginalized the
Sunnis. Three, the military resistance against the American
occupation developed primarily in the Sunni regions, and that
resulted in the systematic military targeting of these regions
by the American occupation forces
along with their allies: the newly-
formed Shiite-dominated government
security apparatuses which were
either trained by the Americans or by
the Islamic Republic of Iran, which
for its part has had long-held grudges
against the Ba`thists of Iraq, even
prior to the outbreak of the eight-
year war between Iran and Iraq in
September 1980.
Further yet, the particular targeting
of the Sunni regions accentuated the
popular disaffection and made the
population in them a fertile ground
for the spread of al-Qaida in western
and northern Iraq, originally through
the Jordanian Abu Mus`ab al-Zarqawi
who came into the country from
across the border in Jordan where
he was jailed. That accentuation
was made even worse with the latter
spread of ISIS in the Sunni provinces,
as of 2014, and the ensuing battles
of recurrent bloody expansions and
contractions of ISIS in these provinces, with the consequences
being the utter massive devastation of the Sunni regions in
Iraq – humanly, demographically, and economically. For
example, the third largest city in Iraq, Mosul, in addition to
many other predominantly Sunni cities and towns, particularly
Ramadi and Fallujah, have all but been destroyed.
plus one of the total Parliament membership of 329, which
is 165 deputies or more.
Apart from the major parties and coalitions highlighted
above which achieved relatively high results, there were
also hundreds of other candidates and scores of entities who
competed in the elections. Among these relatively small
entities or vote getters, a Kurdish politician’s movement, the
Movement of Change, headed by Omar Said Ali, obtained
5 seats in the new parliament, two other entities achieved 4
seats each, six entities 3 seats each, eight entities 2 seats each,
nine entities 1 seat each, and fi nally 2 seats for individual
independent candidates.
Thus, the jockeying to form the
new government through a minimal
coalition of 165 deputies began in
earnest after the Iraqi Supreme Court
offi cially ratifi ed the election results
on August 19. There are three broad
political orientations among the
biggest parties/entities which scored
comparatively high in the elections,
but none by far could form a new
government alone. The fi rst is headed
by Muqtada al-Sadr who came out
with the biggest number of seats:
54. The second is headed by Hadi al-
`Amiri (48 seats). And the third entity
is that of current Prime Minister
Haidar al-`Abadi (42 seats). While all
the other entities fell regressively far
behind, as indicated above.
Muqtada al-Sadr’s orientation/
platform, as he highlighted it
repeatedly during the elections,
has been focused, domestically, on
rooting out the rampant corruption
that has plagued the country since
occupation. He even reached out to secular forces, leftists,
and even communists for cooperation. On the level of
foreign policy, al-Sadr has been strongly opposed to foreign
interference in Iraq, whether by the U.S., or Iran which
had repeatedly in the past, since the American occupation,
sought somehow to contain al-Sadr, and at the same time to
strengthen other Shiite groups at his expense. In fact, Iran
even obstructed his repeated attempts following 2003 to
launch a military insurgency against American occupation
in the context of its quid pro quo deals with the Americans
to divide among themselves the infl uence in Iraq, while its
other close Iraqi Shiite allies, such as Al-Hakims and Nuri
al-Maliki, actively cooperated with the Americans and
participated in the successive governments under occupation.
Muqtada al-Sadr’s
orientation/platform,
as he highlighted it
repeatedly during the
elections, has been
focused, domestically,
on rooting out the
rampant corruption
that has plagued
the country since
occupation.
Analysis of the Recent Elections
If we take a closer look at the results of the elections we
fi nd that no single party or coalition has achieved a decisive
majority in the Parliament, and therefore all of the major
and next-to-major political parties/groups fi nd it necessary
to coalesce with a combination of other winning entities in
order to reach a parliamentary majority of a minimum half
42 • Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Diplomatist • Vol 6 • Issue 8 • August 2018, Noida