Maliki got election assist from Anbar crisis
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki skillfully used the Anbar crisis to deepen the sense of collective danger among Shiite voters.
The “Anbar crisis” was the most prominent issue for Iraqi Shiite voters in the April 30 elections, and was also a key indicator about the sentiment of Sunni voters. This appeared in the electoral discourse of nearly all blocs, especially the bloc of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, the State of Law Coalition, which built its electoral campaign on the Anbar crisis.
That the Anbar battles were at the heart of electoral campaigning was not surprising. The continuing Sunni protests of more than a year, their development into bloody clashes with the Iraqi army, Iraqi soldiers being killed at the hands of militants belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) and ISIS cutting off the waters of the Euphrates all seemed to be determining factors for the Iraqi elections.
In the Shiite arena, there was no major split between the political forces, practically, on the position toward the crisis. All major forces supported the Iraqi army and condemned the practices of ISIS. But that was not enough to prevent the crisis from playing out in favor of Maliki’s electoral coalition.
Between March 31 and April 30, Maliki gave dozens of speeches, held many meetings and visited many Iraqi cities. All his speeches, without exception, focused on the “anti-terrorism” electoral theme. Statements by members of his electoral bloc and their electoral campaign were similar, and hinted that the Shiites’ partners are not supporting the army enough in its military operations and that the Sunni partners are allied in one way or another with the terrorists.
