Iraq’s Shiite militias hope battlefield wins can secure electoral victory
An electoral coalition formed by some pro-Iranian Shiite Popular Mobilization Units is confident it can secure enough seats in parliament to form a majority and claim the premiership.
Baghdad is in the midst of an electoral campaign, with nearly two weeks remaining before the Iraqi parliamentary elections on May 12. Large posters of candidates line the streets of the capital, alongside pictures of members of the Iraqi armed forces and of Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) forces killed in the fight against the Islamic State (IS).
Prominent figures of the PMU, also known as Hashid Shaabi, allied in the Fateh (Conquest) coalition are at the forefront of the race, bolstered by the organization's role in the victory over IS in December 2017. In a conversation with Al-Monitor, Naim al-Aboudi, the spokesman for PMU Asaib Ahl al-Haq (League of the Righteous), discussed the elections and the evolution of the group in the wake of the fight against IS.
Aboudi seems unfazed by the upheaval in the Asaib Ahl al-Haq headquarters in Baghdad. “The elections are attracting a lot of attention — whether locally, regionally or internationally — because they will create the base for a new phase of state-building and reconstruction. The 2018 elections are very different from the 2014 or 2010 elections because we are in the phase of victory over IS. There is popular trust in terms of the state's effort to stabilize security, although there are some problems linked to the economic and services sectors. There will not be a big difference between large leading coalitions [during the polls], but we believe that we [Fateh] will be competing with the Nasr coalition [headed by current Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi] for a majority of seats [in parliament],” said Aboudi, who pointed out that Asaib Ahl al-Haq supports candidates who are running in most of the country’s various regions, with the exception of Anbar province and northern Iraq.
The Fateh coalition currently supports the election of Hadi al-Amiri, the head of the Badr Organization, to the premiership. After delegates are elected to parliament, they in turn will elect the Iraqi president and prime minister. “Our first choice is Mujaheed Sayed Amiri," Aboudi said, using an Arabic honorific title to refer to Amiri when asked if the PMU would support the candidacy of Abadi. "It is nonetheless too early to say who would be our second choice.”
