Baghdad, October 01: Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has formed a new political bloc to fight a general election scheduled for January, a senior official in his Dawa party said on Thursday.
Hassan al-Sined told a gathering of candidates in central Baghdad that the new State of Law alliance was made up of 40 political parties and movements, including Shi’ite, Sunni Arab and Kurdish groupings.
Maliki announced in August that he was breaking ranks with the Shi’ite alliance that dominates his ruling coalition, instead aiming to establish a multi-confessional bloc including Sunni tribal leaders to fight the election.
Iraq’s last Parliamentary Election in 2005 was contested along essentially communal lines, but Maliki hopes a non-sectarian alliance can bridge the divide that has marred politics and security since the US-led invasion of 2003.
Shi’ite parties won 128 of the 275 seats in Parliament in 2005.
Neither Maliki nor his Dawa party stood in Provincial Elections in January, which were seen as a de facto referendum on his leadership. Instead the Premier fielded candidates under the same State of Law banner on which he now intends to fight January’s general election.
–Agencies