BAGHDAD — Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki on Thursday unveiled a coalition of religious, secular and tribal parties that will run in parliamentary elections this winter, putting himself in competition with a faction of fellow Shiite Muslims who were once his allies.
The split between Maliki's Islamic Dawa Party and the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, or SIIC, was unthinkable four years ago. At that time, the country's Shiite religious majority stood united in a bid to solidify its control of Iraq after years of suffering under the Sunni-dominated regime of the late dictator Saddam Hussein.
Both Maliki and his rivals in SIIC are seeking to portray their movements as nationalist and not defined by the sectarian politics that previously dragged the country to the brink of collapse.
The birth of the State of Law coalition "represents a historic milestone and development in establishing a modern Iraq built on peaceful, nationalist principles," Maliki said in his speech announcing his group's formation.
At least 39 political groups joined with the Dawa Party. Many of the politicians were familiar faces from the Shiite parliament bloc that prevailed in 2005 national elections, and which Maliki has now left behind. Others were Sunni Arab tribal leaders from several provinces.
Sheiks, men in smart suits and turbaned clerics were among the crowd gathered at the Rashid Hotel in Baghdad's high-security Green Zone. There were also female candidates in veils and others in Western blouses and slacks. Christian clergy hobnobbed. A giant banner with a scale of justice hung over the stage, where Maliki presented his bloc.
SIIC had announced its own coalition, the Iraqi National Alliance, in late August. That bloc includes many prominent Shiite parties and politicians as well as a smaller number of Sunni tribal leaders. SIIC had hoped to bring Maliki within its fold, but the prime minister balked when the group would not promise him his current post.
SIIC had offered to continue negotiations with Maliki, but the prime minister's followers see its slate as weak and filled with too many personalities associated with the country's nadir in the early years after the U.S.-led 2003 invasion.
Those figures include former Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari, whose term in 2005 was marked by Iraq's slide into sectarian war, and Ahmad Chalabi, a polarizing figure on account of his involvement in the purging of Hussein-era civil servants from the government.
