Basra governorate election, 2009

Basra Governorate election, 2009
All 35 seats for the Baghdad Governorate council
Governor of Baghdad before election; Muhammad al-Waili ; Fadhila	Subsequent Governor; Shitagh Abbud ; State of Law Coalition

Last updated March 13, 2019

The Basra governorate election of 2009 was held on 31 January 2009 alongside elections for all other governorates outside Iraqi Kurdistan and Kirkuk.

Basra Governorate is a governorate in southern Iraq, bordering Kuwait to the south and Iran to the east. The capital is the city of Basra. Other districts of Basra include Al-Qurnah, Az Zubayr, Al Midaina, Shatt Al Arab, Abu Al Khaseeb and Al Faw located on the Persian Gulf.

Iraq presently consists of 19 governorates, also known as "provinces". As per the Iraqi constitution, three or more governorates can join to form an autonomous region. Baghdad and Basra are the oldest standing administrative regions of Iraq while In 2014 the decision was made to create the Halabja Governorate out of the Halabja District of Sulaymaniyah Governorate.

Iraqi Kurdistan, officially called the Kurdistan Region of Iraq by the Iraqi constitution, is an autonomous region located in northern Iraq. It is also referred to as Southern Kurdistan, as Kurds generally consider it to be one of the four parts of Greater Kurdistan, which also includes parts of southeastern Turkey, northern Syria, and northwestern Iran.

Background

One seat in the election is reserved for Assyrian Christian ^{[ disambiguation needed ]}s ^[1]

Basra is the main oil-producing and transit centre in Iraq, which has led to intense competition over control of its Governorate. ^[2] It has been the centre of competition between the al-Maliki Federal government, which controls the police and army, the Islamic Virtue Party Governor of Basra which controls the Oil Protection Corps and local militias from the Sadrist Movement and Tharallah. Following the Battle of Basra in 2008, the central government seized control of the city's streets from the Sadrist Movement and the security situation improved.

The Sadrist Movement is an Iraqi Islamic national movement led by Muqtada al-Sadr. The movement draws wide support from across Iraqi society and especially from the Shi'a poor in the country. The most important person in setting the goals and the philosophy of the movement was Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr. A prominent preceding influence had also been Mohammad Baqir al-Sadr. The movement is religious and populist. Its goal is a society ordered by a combination of religious laws and tribal customs.

The Battle of Basra began on 25 March 2008, when the Iraqi Army launched an operation to drive the Mahdi Army militia out of the southern Iraqi city of Basra. The operation was the first major operation to be planned and carried out by the Iraqi Army since the invasion of 2003.

In April 2007, SIIC successfully brought a no-confidence motion against Governor Waili. This dismissal was ratified by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in July, but eventually overturned by the Supreme Court. ^[2]

Nouri Kamil Mohammed Hasan al-Maliki, also known as Jawad al-Maliki or Abu Esraa, is an Iraqi politician who was Prime Minister of Iraq from 2006 to 2014. He is secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party and a Vice President of Iraq.

The central government has organized " Local Support Committee " militias, has spent $100 million in reconstruction projects and has started paying unemployment benefits in the province. This was expected to lead to an increased support for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Islamic Dawa Party.^[2]

The Islamic Dawa Party, also known as the Islamic Call Party, is a political party in Iraq. Dawa and the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council are two of the main parties in the religious-Shiite United Iraqi Alliance, which won a plurality of seats in both the provisional January 2005 Iraqi election and the longer-term December 2005 election. The party is led by Haider al-Abadi, who has been Prime Minister of Iraq since 8 September 2014. The party backed the Iranian Revolution and also Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini during the Iran–Iraq War and the group still receives financial support from Tehran despite ideological differences with the Islamic Republic.

Meanwhile, the Islamic Virtue Party dropped Waeli from its candidate list, reportedly due to his "polarizing" effect. ^[2]

In a move away from their traditional apolitical stance, a list with a core support from the Shaykhiya religious community stood for the first time. ^[3]

Basra Region

In November 2008 Wael Abdul Latif, an Independent Islamist MP backed by tribal Sheikhs, submitted a petition to the Electoral Commission of Iraq signed by 34,800 people calling for a vote on a Region of Iraq covering only the governorate of Basrah. ^[4] The Sadrist movement opposed the move, saying it was "playing with fire" as did the Islamic Dawa Party of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. SCIRI remained neutral, as it supports a nine-province Region covered the whole of southern Iraq. As the petition was signed by more than 2% of the population, the commission published an official request for signatures; if more than 10% of the population had signed it before 15 January 2009, a referendum would have been held within 15 days. ^[5]^[6] In the event, the initiative failed to reach 10% and was struck down by the Electoral Commission. Backers accused the al-Maliki federal government of blocking their media campaign and appealed the decision to the Federal Court. ^[7]

Results

e • d **Summary of the 31 January 2009 Basra governorate election results**
Coalition 2005/2009	Allied national parties	Leader	Seats (2005)	Seats (2009)	Change	Votes
State of Law Coalition	Islamic Dawa Party	Nouri Al-Maliki	3	20	+17	239,007
Al Mihrab Martyr List	ISCI	Abdul Aziz al-Hakim	20	5	-15	74,879
Gathering of Justice and Unity			-	2	+2	34,862
Independent Free Movement List	Sadrist Movement	Muqtada al-Sadr	2	2	-	32,020
Iraqi Islamic Party	Iraqi Islamic Party	Tariq al-Hashimi	-	2	+2	24,817
Iraqi National List	Iraqi National Accord	Iyad Allawi	4	2	-2	21,091
Islamic Virtue Party	Islamic Virtue Party	Abdelrahim Al-Husseini	12	1	-11	20,932
Chaldean Democratic Union Party (Assyrian reserved seat)	CDUP	Ablahad Afraim Sawa	-	1	+1	227
Other Parties						198,274
Total			41	35	-6	646,109
Sources: this article - Al Sumaria - New York Times - ^[8]

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References

↑ Iraqi parliament approves amendment for provincial election law, Xinhua , 2008-11-03
1 2 3 4 In Basra, political skirmishing heats up as elections near, Los Angeles Times , 2008-12-28
↑ The Candidate Lists Are Out: Basra More Fragmented, Sadrists Pursuing Several Strategies?, Historiae, 2008-12-12
↑ Basra heading towards independent region, Al Sumaria , 2008-11-17, accessed on 2009-01-05
↑ A New Twist in Iraq's Shi'ite Power Struggle, Time magazine , 2008-11-16, accessed on 2009-01-05
↑ The Basra Federalism Initiative Enters Stage Two, Historiae, 2008-12-15
↑ Autonomy Referendum For Iraq's South Struck Down, Radio Liberty , 2009-01-20
↑ final election results, Niqash , 2009-02-25

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[1] Iraqi parliament approves amendment for provincial election law, Xinhua , 2008-11-03

[LAT-2] 1 2 3 4 In Basra, political skirmishing heats up as elections near, Los Angeles Times , 2008-12-28

[3] The Candidate Lists Are Out: Basra More Fragmented, Sadrists Pursuing Several Strategies?, Historiae, 2008-12-12

[4] Basra heading towards independent region, Al Sumaria , 2008-11-17, accessed on 2009-01-05

[5] A New Twist in Iraq's Shi'ite Power Struggle, Time magazine , 2008-11-16, accessed on 2009-01-05

[6] The Basra Federalism Initiative Enters Stage Two, Historiae, 2008-12-15

[7] Autonomy Referendum For Iraq's South Struck Down, Radio Liberty , 2009-01-20

[8] tion results, Niqash , 2009-02-25