Allawi battles for his share of Iraqi votes
Ayad Allawi expressed pessimism toward the upcoming Iraqi elections and called on Iran to contribute to ensuring security in Iraq.
![IRAQ-MALIKI/ELECTION-PREVIEW Former Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi speaks during an interview with Reuters in Baghdad, April 20, 2014. For Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, a politician who saw himself as the one who rescued Iraq from civil war in the last decade, the current state of affairs amounts to a stunning reversal of fortune as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fighters inch towards the capital and Shiite militias he vanquished assert their influence again. Picture taken April 20, 2014. REUTERS/Thaier al-Sudani (IRAQ](/sites/default/files/styles/article_hero_medium/public/almpics/2014/04/RTR3MZCW.jpg/RTR3MZCW.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=MoX2yq8R)
Ayad Allawi, whose Iraq National Movement (“Iraqiyya”) won the most votes in the 2010 Iraqi parliamentary elections, won’t be able to repeat that victory this time.
Yet he is still a presence in the 2014 elections, and is one of the few Iraqi politicians capable of freely moving across the sectarian barriers and animosity which characterizes most Iraqi politicians, winning a large bloc of Sunni votes in 2010.