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Sadr alliance's win spurs hope among Baghdad poor

Baghdad's poor, many of whom voted for Muqtada al-Sadr’s Sairoon Alliance, hope that the election result will lead to an improvement of their daily lives.
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BAGHDAD — Sadr City, the section of the Iraqi capital previously known as Revolution City and then Saddam City, has long been seen as a violent place filled with the disenfranchised.

It is bursting at the seams with an estimated population of some 3.5 million, half the population of Baghdad. High unemployment, dire poverty and a long history of militia violence have made Sadr City a no-go area for many Baghdad residents, despite marked improvement in security in recent years.

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