Maliki Faces First Defection From State Of Law List

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is gearing up to announce his State of Law List that will compete in the January 2010 parliamentary elections. He has faced his first setback however. Former speaker of the legislature Mahmoud al-Mashhadani’s, a Sunni politician from the National Independent Trend, has withdrawn his group from the State of Law. Mashhadani was the first well-known figure to publicly say that he would join with Maliki on September 12, 2009. When the Maliki’s coalition is revealed, it will most likely consist of his Dawa Party, the Dawa-Iraq Organization, former national security adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, independents from the old United Iraqi Alliance, the Arab Front, and members of the Shammar tribe. The Prime Minister will need to find more partners if he hopes to successfully challenge the new Iraqi National Alliance that consists of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council and the Sadrists.

SOURCES

Alsumaria, “New coalitions arise ahead of Iraq elections,” 9/12/09

ADN Kronis, “Iraq: al-Mashhadani announced his withdrawal from Maliki’s coalition,” 9/29/09

Aswat al-Iraq, “Iraqi council for national powers announced,” 9/15/09

Awan Daily, “Maliki announced next week, the electoral coalition,” 9/25/09

Independent Press Agency, “Declaration of the Alliance parliamentarians quitting Iraqi List and a splinter movement from the Sadr movement with the tide of al-Mashhadani,” 9/26/09

Roads To Iraq, "Election update - various other news," 9/29/09