National Iraqi Alliance - January 2005 Parliamentary Election

January 2005 Parliamentary Election

The Alliance formed in the lead-up to the January 2005 elections from mainly Shi’ite groups most importantly the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, whose leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim headed the list, and Islamic Dawa Party. Other important members included the secular Iraqi National Congress led by Ahmed Chalabi and the independent nuclear physicist Hussain Shahristani. It also included supporters of cleric Muqtada al-Sadr who preferred not to back his National Independent Cadres and Elites party, and a number of independent Sunni representatives. The coalition was widely believed to have been supported by senior Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most widely respected religious figure in Iraq. Although al-Sistani offered no official endorsement, many in Iraq understood the UIA to be the “al-Sistani list.”

The twenty two parties included in the coalition, which was called List 228, were:

1. Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI)
2. Badr Organisation
3. Islamic Dawa Party (al-Dawa)
4. Islamic Dawa Party—Iraq Organisation
5. Islamic Virtue Party
6. Hezbollah Movement in Iraq
7. Hezbollah al-Iraq
8. Islamic Action Organisation
9. Sayyid Al-Shuhadaa Organisation
10. Shaheed Al-Mihrab Organisation
11. Iraqi National Congress (INC)
12. Centrist Assembly Party
13. Islamic Fayli Grouping in Iraq
14. Fayli Kurd Islamic Union
15. First Democratic National Party
16. Assembly “Future of Iraq”
17. Justice and Equality Grouping
18. Islamic Master of the Martyrs Movement
19. Islamic Union for Iraqi Turkomans
20. Turkmen Fidelity Movement

Many members of the Alliance had lived in exile in Iran, including Ibrahim al-Jaafari, Iraq’s Prime Minister from 2005 to 2006, who led the Islamic Dawa Party. In 1980 thousands of al-Dawa supporters were imprisoned or executed after advocating replacing Saddam Hussein’s secular Ba'ath Party government with an Islamic government. The Iranian government supported their efforts and allowed members of Al-Da’wa to seek exile in Iran.

The Alliance received 4.08 million votes (48.1%) in the election, which gave the bloc 140 seats on the 275-seat Council of Representatives of Iraq. The Alliance's nominees included 42 women. The Alliance formed a coalition Iraqi Transitional Government with the Democratic Patriotic Alliance of Kurdistan. Ibrahim al-Jaafari, leader of the Islamic Dawa Party, became th Prime Minister of Iraq and Jalal Talabani of the Kurdistani Alliance became the President of Iraq.

In March 2005, the Iraqi Turkmen Front agreed to join the UIA’s caucus in the National Assembly. In return, Sistani reportedly pledged support for the recognition of Iraqi Turkmen as a national minority.