Rival Factions in Iraq Successfully Formed a Coalition

Rival political groups in Iraq announced that they have successfully formed coalitions after months of uncertainty following the parliamentary elections in May. Reuters reported that on Sunday (September 2), the group led by Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and the group of current Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the formation of a coalition that will become the majority bloc in parliament. Another rival group led by militia commander Hadi al-Amiri and former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki also claimed to have formed their coalition as the largest parliamentary bloc. According to Reuters, they stated that by attracting some representatives who had previously joined the rival coalition, they have formed the largest independent parliamentary coalition. Maliki and Amiri are two politicians close to Iran, while Abadi prefers to be seen as a politician close to the United States, and Muqtada al-Sadr is supported by nationalists who reject both Iranian and American interference in Iraq. The Iraqi parliament has 329 seats and is set to hold its first session on Tuesday, where it will elect a speaker and begin the process of forming a new government. The May parliamentary elections were held for the first time after the defeat of the Islamic State (ISIS) in the country, but disputes over the counting of votes delayed the announcement of final results until last month. The future government of Iraq will face two major challenges: rebuilding the country after three years of civil war and balancing its relations with its two long-standing rivals and Baghdad's allies, Iran and the United States. Uncertainty about the composition of the future government has fueled tensions in the country amid rising public dissatisfaction with poor public services, increasing unemployment, and the slow pace of reconstruction after the civil war. Although the recount of votes delayed the announcement of election results by three months, it made little change to the initial vote counts; Muqtada al-Sadr holds 54 seats in the Iraqi parliament, the U.S.-aligned bloc has 48 seats in second place, Abadi has 42 seats in third place, and Maliki's faction has 25 seats in fifth place. The Iraqi News Agency published a document on Sunday stating that the large parliamentary coalition claimed by Muqtada al-Sadr and Haider al-Abadi includes 20 electoral lists that together hold 187 seats in the new Iraqi parliament. According to this document, representatives affiliated with Ammar al-Hakim, a Shiite cleric, and Ayad Allawi, the Vice President of Iraq, along with several Shiite, Sunni, Turkmen, Yazidi, and Christian representatives are also part of this coalition. Al-Amiri and Maliki announced in a joint press conference late on Sunday that they have formed the largest parliamentary coalition consisting of 145 seats. Meanwhile, the two major Kurdish parties in Iraq, which together have secured 43 seats in the new parliament, have not yet joined either of these two coalitions. Reuters noted that these two parties could play a decisive role in determining the numerical superiority of one coalition over the other. Since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, power in Iraq has been divided among the three main ethnic-religious groups; the Prime Minister is chosen from among the Shiite Arabs, the Speaker of the House from among the Sunni Arabs, and the President from among the Kurds.