Baghdad, March 26: Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a tough-talking former rebel who spent decades in exile and says he was sentenced to death by Saddam Hussein, now risks being forced from office.
Maliki, who emerged from the political shadows to take the reins of Iraq’s first permanent post-Saddam government in 2006, is demanding a manual recount of votes from the March 7 election after initial counts showed an advantage for rival Iyad Allawi’s Iraqiya bloc.
The electoral commission rejected holding a recount, despite Maliki warning of a “return to violence” in Iraq if his demands were ignored.
The former guerrilla has forged a reputation of being a strong leader who could impose stability on the war-ravaged country, and also faced down accusations of sectarianism for not tackling Shiite militias in 2007.
His about face over the election — at first he said complaints should not affect the results — suggested growing anxiety after a confident campaign with his State of Law Alliance.
Maliki was born in the predominantly Shiite central province of Hilla in 1950. He joined the Shiite Islamic Dawa Party — the oldest Iraqi movement opposed to Saddam — while at university.
The current prime minister, who holds an MA in Arabic Literature, fled Iraq in 1979 after Saddam Hussein banned the party, and Dawa claims that he was later sentenced to death in absentia.
From 1980 onwards, he lived in Iran and then Syria.
He took on the nom de guerre Jawad, which he only dropped upon becoming prime minister, and initially began coordinating cross-border guerrilla raids from Iran into Iraq.
Upon moving to Syria, he began editing Dawa’s newspaper in Damascus.
He returned to Iraq after the US-led invasion of 2003 and became a member of the de-Baathification commission that removed Saddam supporters from public office.
In 2006, Maliki, an owlish, suit-wearing, bespectacled man rarely seen smiling in public, was named premier after his predecessor Ibrahim al-Jaafari met stiff opposition from Sunnis and Kurds who regarded him as too sectarian.
In January 2009, allies of the premier campaigned under his State of Law banner and performed well in provincial elections.
His list’s success emboldened him to split from the main Shiite bloc to create his own cross-sectarian alliance late last year.
The strategy was only partly successful, as his political grouping remains dominated by Shiite candidates with only a smattering of Sunnis and Kurds.
His support in Sunni areas has been small as a result.
Iraq’s system of proportional representation also makes it difficult for any single party to win a majority in parliament, so Maliki will have to do deals with former allies and bitter rivals even if his bloc wins.
—Agencies