Iraq continues to be embroiled in its messy post-election coalition building process. Domestic rhetoric and behind-the-scenes dealings have been supplemented with visits to regional neighbors, with every man and group naming their price for compromise and cooperation. As expected, this process will likely take longer than the optimistic one to two-month timeline predicted by Iraqi officials, particularly since Iraq’s electoral commission ordered a manual recount of the votes cast in Baghdad province on April 19. The recount came after complaints from the incumbent Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of the Islamic Dawa Party and his State of Law coalition. Ordered by a special elections court, the recount covers 68 seats in the 325-seat parliament and could alter the final result of the poll; especially since Maliki came a close second behind the victor, Ayad Allawi and his Iraqi National Movement (INM), with 89 seats to Allawi’s 91. Since the March 7
Dr Ranj Alaaldin is a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution in Doha. He specialises in intrastate conflict, governance and human security issues in the Middle East.
