IRAQ’S FAR LEFT STEPS UP AGAIN IN ALLIANCE WITH SADR

▶ Communists won only two seats in poll but coalition may give them voice

In a remarkable comeback after decades in Iraq’s political wilderness, communists have formed an unexpected alliance with Shiite cleric Moqtada Al Sadr, whose bloc dominated the country’s parliamentary elections.

The electoral commission announced that the Iraqi Communist Party had won just two seats in parliament. But their coalition with Mr Al Sadr’s Marching Towards Reform bloc (Sairoun) may give them a voice in the next government.

Mr Al Sadr, 44, and his coalition partners were able to capitalise on public resentment over the current administration’s failure to improve services, fight sectarianism and sideline foreign interference.

They won 54 seats in the 329seat parliament and, for all their differences, were united on non-interference in Iraq’s internal affairs, social justice and fighting corruption.

“The communists echo the widely held rejection of the governing system of the past 15 years and stand for a reformist, anti-corruption, anti-apportionment platform,” said Fanar Haddad, senior research fellow at Singapore University.

“These are positions, not policies, and it is unclear how these positions can be realised in an actual reform agenda,” Mr Haddad told The National.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, the influence of communists diminished in the region.

At their peak in the 1940s under Yusuf Salman Yusuf, also known as Comrade Fahad, the ICP’s influence increased in the country. But the anti-communist clampdown by the police, which led to the 1958 revolution that overthrew the monarchy, meant the party had to work discreetly.

At the time, the Iraqi state was shaken by popular uprisings against the imposition of the British mandate.

After its establishment in 1934, the ICP played a key anticolonial role but its aspirations were cut short by the rise of the Baath Party in the 1970s.

It was only after the US-led invasion in 2003 that the ICP reemerged in Iraqi politics.

Reports circulated that secular politicians refused to join forces with the Sadrists because of a lack of common ground, some even said it was near impossible for religious and secular groups to align.

But the ICP and Sadrists have found common ground in social justice and populist protests against government austerity. The communists realised it had to accept that only a popular leader could bring radical changes to the country.

Analysts say the ICP’s decision to align with the cleric was based on pragmatism.

“They had not had any impact institutionally in Iraq’s political system, so they found common ground with Mr Al Sadr,” said Renad Mansour, senior research fellow at Chatham House in Oxford, England.

Mr Al Sadr, known for leading armed militia group the Mehdi army, has reinvented himself as a populist preacher with a firm stance against foreign intervention in Iraq.

While he is unlikely to become prime minister, he will gain a significant number of seats and has begun talks about government formation.

Raad Fahmi, the ICP’s secretary general, said there had been apprehension from some of its members about joining forces with Mr Al Sadr.

“Actions speak louder than words. He’s not the same Moqtada Al Sadr,” Mr Fahmi said.

In 2007 the US declared Mr Al Sadr’s Mehdi army as the group that replaced Al Qaeda in Iraq and the most dangerous “accelerant of potentially self-sustaining sectarian violence”.

The army was accused of targeting Sunnis in Baghdad and for assassinations around the country. They also clashed with the Iranian-backed Badr group, which controls Iraq’s interior ministry.

Mr Al Sadr fled to Iran later in 2007 to become an ayatollah at a Shiite religious centre in the central Iranian city of Qom.

On his return to Iraq, he mobilised a support base that ended with protests in Baghdad.

There were fears that it would be difficult for non-Sadrists to avoid being swamped by his power, assets and organisational abilities.

“It is more likely that the lion’s share of Sairoun’s electoral gains are from the Sadrist component. In other words, Sairoun needs the Sadrists a lot more than the other way around,” Mr Haddad said.

Although the once-forgotten communists may have little influence over the next Iraqi government’s policies, Mr Al Sadr’s bloc has brought them back into the spotlight.

It was only after the US-led invasion in 2003 that the ICP was able to re-emerge in Iraqi politics