Maliki tipped for chairmanship of Iraq’s leading political coalition
Nouri al-Maliki, the leader of the Iraqi State of Law faction and the former Iraqi premier.
Maliki is a candidate for the presidency of the Iraqi National Alliance, according to press statements by Rasoul Radi, an MP from the State of the Law, the parliamentary bloc headed by Maliki.
The alliance’s chairman, Ammar al-Hakim, is scheduled to end his tenure early August, and has recently called for starting measures to select his successor. The alliance’s member parties agreed to take a candidate’s party’s share of parliament seats into consideration when making the selection.
The Iraqi National Alliance is Iraq’s largest Shia political coalition, and was founded in 2009 by former PM and current foreign minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari.
Maliki became prime minister for the first time in 2006 amid a high tide of sectarian conflicts and al-Qaeda terrorism. He left his post reluctantly in August 2014 to current premier Haider al-Abadi, becoming deputy to Iraqi incumbent president Fuad Masum.
He faced popular anti-corruption protests near the end of his tenure, and an Iraqi parliamentary panel had blamed him for the fall of the city of Mosul to Islamic State militants.