In the second parliamentary election since 2003, nearly 6,200 candidates, including 1,718 women, are vying for a place in Iraq’s now expanded 325-member Parliament. The leading formations were: State of Law Coalition (Shia); Iraqi National Alliance (Shia); Iraqiya (secular); Kurdistan Democratic Party and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (Kurdish); and Iraqi Accordance Front (Sunni).

The frontrunner was the Shia-supported State of Law Coalition headed by Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki. This formation had done well, especially in the southern Shia strongholds, during the provincial council elections held in January 2009. The Prime Minister during that year was credited with improving the general state of security. However, spiralling violence since the second half of 2009 and lack of basic services may now have dented his party’s appeal.

Another Shia formation with strong support was the Iraqi National Alliance. The Alliance, which appears to have a pro-Iran slant, includes heavyweights such as Ammar Al-Hakim, the head of the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC) and the largest Shia party in Iraq. Analysts point out that Mr. Hakim and his followers have recently begun to stress the need for an early exit of U.S. troops from Iraq. Moqtada Al-Sadr, a leading critic of the occupation, is also part of this coalition. His presence imparts a prominent non-sectarian accent to the Alliance.

In a Saturday interview aired by the Iran-based Al Alam television, Mr. Al Sadr said: “I want the Iraqi to serve the Iraqi, whether he is a Kurd, a Shia, a Turkoman or a Sunni or a member of any other Iraqi sect, whether a minority or a majority one.” Observers say that an alliance between Mr. Maliki’s coalition and the Iraqi National Alliance is a post-poll possibility, as neither of the two formations, on their own, may muster a simple majority in Sunday’s poll.

The former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi heads the secular Iraqiya List, which is another major formation participating in the polls. Mr. Allawi’s bloc, having wide cross-sectarian support also has the backing of Sunni Vice-President Tariq Al-Hashimi.

Iraq’s Kurdish community — concentrated in northern Iraq — is expected to cast its vote either for Massoud Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party or President Jalal Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which are part of a common alliance. This bloc has 53 seats in the current 275-member Parliament.

The Iraqi Accordance Front, which a Sunni dominated formation, having 44 seats in the current Parliament, is also contesting the polls.

With security a major threat, authorities deployed nearly 2,00,000 personnel in an effort to keep a lid on violence. At least 12 persons were killed when an explosion destroyed a residential building in Baghdad soon after polls opened at 7 a.m. local time. Five more were killed in another blast in the capital. Another seven died in other parts of the country. Violence was reported from Fallujah where two bombs went off close to a polling station. (link)

Suspecting that the Kirkuki Kurds might join the uprising, the Iraqi army increased street patrols in Kurdish neighborhoods and placed many of them under curfew. Ali Hassan al-Majid was put in charge of the city’s security and a door-to-door operation began in which several thousand boys and men aged from their early teens to their fifties were arrested. They were transported to military camps and compounds outside the city, where they were held in appalling conditions for the next five weeks. When the majority of them were finally released, they were forbidden to return to Kirkuk.

Having put many of the men out of action, the army was then sent in to demolish large numbers of houses in the Kurdish neighborhoods, using dynamite and bulldozers and putting families out on the streets. Army patrols drove past houses that were still standing, calling out on megaphones to the ‘heroic masses of Kirkuk’ to surrender their weapons to the Ba’ath party.

Thornhill (1997) writes,

Thornhill (1997) writes,