Tweet
No matter what your opinion may be about the situation in Iraq, I think it's important to know what's going down this weekend and who's running for office in Iraq.
From the BBC:
Iyad Allawi, Iraq's US-backed interim prime minister, heads the Iraqi National Accord party - a small grouping that owes what influence it has to its prominent leader.
Mr Allawi joined the Baath Party as a young man but fell out with Saddam Hussein, its increasingly dominant figure, in the early 1970s. He fled the country and was injured in a 1978 assassination attempt believed to have been ordered by the former Iraqi leader.
Commentators note wryly that he has the advantage of being equally mistrusted by everyone, from Washington - which he has criticised - to ordinary Iraqis, who suspect him of being a CIA stooge.
A member of a leading Shia family, he may attract the votes of secular Shias.
Shia cleric Abdel Aziz al-Hakim has a long history of opposition to the rule of Saddam Hussein, and tops the electoral list of the United Iraqi Alliance.
He lived in exile in Iran for more than two decades before returning in April 2003 and serving as a member of the Governing Council.
He was elected chairman of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sciri) following the assassination of his brother, Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim.
He promised Sunnis would be represented in any future government regardless of any election boycott.
Ghazi Yawer, the interim president of Iraq, leads an 80-member Iraqis list.
He is a prominent Sunni figure and a tribal leader from the northern city of Mosul.
Educated in the US, he usually appears in traditional Arab dress and is considered to have fairly wide support among Iraq's ethnic and religious groups.
A number of cabinet ministers and tribal chiefs are said to be on the list.
Iraqi Vice-President Ibrahim Jaafari of the Islamic Daawa party
Ibrahim Jaafari, a medical doctor, is the official spokesman of the Islamic Daawa Party.
He was based in London until April 2003, before returning to become the Governing Council's first chairman in July 2003.
He was appointed one of two vice-presidents of the interim government.
Ahmed Chalabi is considered one of the prime movers behind the US-led invasion of Iraq due to his closeness with influential figures in Washington - but his relationship with them has soured since the fall of Saddam Hussein.
Many blame his Iraqi National Congress for providing apparently unreliable evidence about Iraqi weapons programmes, one of the main justifications for the war.
US troops and Iraqi police raided his home and offices in May 2004, and an arrest warrant was issued for him and a nephew on counterfeiting charges in August.
But Mr Chalabi - a secular Shia from a powerful and wealthy family - is resourceful and may cobble together an alliance of Shia parties to back him in January's polls. If so, he could return to a position of influence.
Adnan Pachachi, like Mr Chalabi, was once seen as a possible president of post-Saddam Iraq, with reports suggesting he was the UN favourite in the spring of 2004.
Iraq's secular parties
But the elder statesman - he was foreign minister before Iraq's 1968 Baathist coup - did not have enough support on the Iraqi Governing Council and stood aside.
He heads the Iraqi Independent Democrats, a small party formed after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, and is one of the few significant Sunni figures standing in the polls. He has repeatedly called for the postponement of the elections for fear of a low Sunni turnout.
But he appears to be assembling a larger coalition - in late November, 17 parties representing Sunni Arabs, Kurds, Christians and secular groups gathered at his home to call for a delay to elections.
Dr Hussein Shahristani, a Shia nuclear scientist, was one of six figures chosen to draw up the electoral list of the United Iraqi Alliance.
Dr Hussein Shahristani
Whilst director of research at the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission in 1979, he was imprisoned for possessing a subversive leaflet condemning the repression of Iraqi Shias.
He fled Iraq in 1991 after being imprisoned for refusing to work in Saddam Hussein's nuclear programme and worked for human rights organisations in Iran and London thereafter.
Last year, he said he would not take the job of prime minister - for which he had been tipped - or any other government post, saying he would rather "serve his country in other ways".
The radical young Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr shot to prominence after the fall of Saddam Hussein when his Mehdi Army emerged as a key element of the uprising against the occupation.
But Mr Sadr himself has swung between fiery resistance and apparent willingness to compromise. More senior Shia clerics, including the venerated Ayatollah Ali Sistani, have had some success in reining him in.
He is not likely to run for political office himself, but could play an influential role through allies.
With the two main Shia parties at least tacitly co-operating with the US-backed administration, candidates endorsed by Mr Sadr could win the backing of Shias unhappy with the current state of affairs.
Iraq's Kurds represent 15-20% of the population and are expected to vote for one of two Kurdish leaders standing in the election.
One is Massoud Barzani, a Kurdish Sunni, who has led the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) since the death of his father, Mullah Mustafa, in 1979.
Mr Barzani has worked in tandem with Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) leader Jalal Talabani since 2002, and the two groups form the backbone of the Kurdistan Alliance List.
Mr Talabani has been a champion of Kurdish nationalism since the 1960s, when he was a member of the KDP. Mr Talabani split from the KDP to help form the PUK in 1975.
Link to story...
From the BBC:
Iyad Allawi, Iraq's US-backed interim prime minister, heads the Iraqi National Accord party - a small grouping that owes what influence it has to its prominent leader.
Mr Allawi joined the Baath Party as a young man but fell out with Saddam Hussein, its increasingly dominant figure, in the early 1970s. He fled the country and was injured in a 1978 assassination attempt believed to have been ordered by the former Iraqi leader.
Commentators note wryly that he has the advantage of being equally mistrusted by everyone, from Washington - which he has criticised - to ordinary Iraqis, who suspect him of being a CIA stooge.
A member of a leading Shia family, he may attract the votes of secular Shias.
Shia cleric Abdel Aziz al-Hakim has a long history of opposition to the rule of Saddam Hussein, and tops the electoral list of the United Iraqi Alliance.
He lived in exile in Iran for more than two decades before returning in April 2003 and serving as a member of the Governing Council.
He was elected chairman of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sciri) following the assassination of his brother, Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim.
He promised Sunnis would be represented in any future government regardless of any election boycott.
Ghazi Yawer, the interim president of Iraq, leads an 80-member Iraqis list.
He is a prominent Sunni figure and a tribal leader from the northern city of Mosul.
Educated in the US, he usually appears in traditional Arab dress and is considered to have fairly wide support among Iraq's ethnic and religious groups.
A number of cabinet ministers and tribal chiefs are said to be on the list.
Iraqi Vice-President Ibrahim Jaafari of the Islamic Daawa party
Ibrahim Jaafari, a medical doctor, is the official spokesman of the Islamic Daawa Party.
He was based in London until April 2003, before returning to become the Governing Council's first chairman in July 2003.
He was appointed one of two vice-presidents of the interim government.
Ahmed Chalabi is considered one of the prime movers behind the US-led invasion of Iraq due to his closeness with influential figures in Washington - but his relationship with them has soured since the fall of Saddam Hussein.
Many blame his Iraqi National Congress for providing apparently unreliable evidence about Iraqi weapons programmes, one of the main justifications for the war.
US troops and Iraqi police raided his home and offices in May 2004, and an arrest warrant was issued for him and a nephew on counterfeiting charges in August.
But Mr Chalabi - a secular Shia from a powerful and wealthy family - is resourceful and may cobble together an alliance of Shia parties to back him in January's polls. If so, he could return to a position of influence.
Adnan Pachachi, like Mr Chalabi, was once seen as a possible president of post-Saddam Iraq, with reports suggesting he was the UN favourite in the spring of 2004.
Iraq's secular parties
But the elder statesman - he was foreign minister before Iraq's 1968 Baathist coup - did not have enough support on the Iraqi Governing Council and stood aside.
He heads the Iraqi Independent Democrats, a small party formed after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, and is one of the few significant Sunni figures standing in the polls. He has repeatedly called for the postponement of the elections for fear of a low Sunni turnout.
But he appears to be assembling a larger coalition - in late November, 17 parties representing Sunni Arabs, Kurds, Christians and secular groups gathered at his home to call for a delay to elections.
Dr Hussein Shahristani, a Shia nuclear scientist, was one of six figures chosen to draw up the electoral list of the United Iraqi Alliance.
Dr Hussein Shahristani
Whilst director of research at the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission in 1979, he was imprisoned for possessing a subversive leaflet condemning the repression of Iraqi Shias.
He fled Iraq in 1991 after being imprisoned for refusing to work in Saddam Hussein's nuclear programme and worked for human rights organisations in Iran and London thereafter.
Last year, he said he would not take the job of prime minister - for which he had been tipped - or any other government post, saying he would rather "serve his country in other ways".
The radical young Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr shot to prominence after the fall of Saddam Hussein when his Mehdi Army emerged as a key element of the uprising against the occupation.
But Mr Sadr himself has swung between fiery resistance and apparent willingness to compromise. More senior Shia clerics, including the venerated Ayatollah Ali Sistani, have had some success in reining him in.
He is not likely to run for political office himself, but could play an influential role through allies.
With the two main Shia parties at least tacitly co-operating with the US-backed administration, candidates endorsed by Mr Sadr could win the backing of Shias unhappy with the current state of affairs.
Iraq's Kurds represent 15-20% of the population and are expected to vote for one of two Kurdish leaders standing in the election.
One is Massoud Barzani, a Kurdish Sunni, who has led the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) since the death of his father, Mullah Mustafa, in 1979.
Mr Barzani has worked in tandem with Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) leader Jalal Talabani since 2002, and the two groups form the backbone of the Kurdistan Alliance List.
Mr Talabani has been a champion of Kurdish nationalism since the 1960s, when he was a member of the KDP. Mr Talabani split from the KDP to help form the PUK in 1975.
Link to story...
Comment