Hakim-led Citizen Coalition could shake up Iraqi elections

During the post-2003 era, secular and Islamic movements in Iraq have offered different proposals for their country, ravaged by decades of wars, blockade and tyranny. The secularists soon realized, however, that they could not adequately compete with the Islamists, who were supported by neighboring countries and enjoyed large popular bases. Thus, Sunni and Shiite religious parties came to control Iraqi politics.

This situation has led some secularists to take on an Islamist image to win elected seats. Others, however, abandoned politics entirely, as was the case with the veteran politician Adnan Pachachi in 2005, while others temporarily left politics, such as Mithal al-Alusi after the killing of his children in 2005 and his ouster from the Iraqi parliament in 2008.

Although Iraq has been under the rule of the Shiite National Iraqi Alliance, the last eight years have shown that the Islamist movement within the alliance does not have a homogeneous identity or common policies for governance. Moreover, each party within the alliance has developed its own vision through experiences during this period, which has led to divisions and the emergence of various coalitions. Recent developments point to the complete collapse of the alliance, although this has not officially been announced.

When studying the inclinations of the new coalitions, one can see that a huge rift has developed between the moderates and extremists. The Badr Organization, which is directly linked to the Iranian Quds Force, split from the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq in 2012, after the latter had founded the organization and supported it. Moreover, moderate members split from the State of Law Coalition to join the Citizen Coalition, after the former moved toward religious extremism and monopolization of power, not to mention its long record of failure in governance and corruption.