Dawa Party attempts to unite Maliki, Abadi fronts to keep Iraq’s prime minister post

The Islamic Dawa Party has held the prime minister post since 2006.

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The ruling Islamic Dawa Party has urged both Nouri al-Maliki’s State of Law Coalition and Haider al-Abadi’s al-Nasr Coalition to unite and have a joint vision and program.

The Dawa Party held a meeting on Saturday with the presence of the party’s leadership and Shura (consultative) Council, including Secretary General Maliki and Secretary of the Political Bureau Abadi, to discuss the unification of both coalitions.

The participants agreed on the importance of putting aside their differences to strengthen the party’s united political position, a readout of the meeting said.

“The participants emphasized the need to activate the party’s national role and unite the vision, program, and efforts of both parliamentary blocs, the al-Nasr Coalition and the State of Law Coalition,” the statement noted.

In the meeting, both coalitions were urged to unite as a first step toward gathering the parliamentary blocs that have common goals and programs.

The challenges facing both coalitions from reaching common ground regarding the party’s objectives and program were also discussed, the statement added.

The party also addressed ways to overcome the challenges by implementing appropriate mechanisms to achieve that.

The Dawa Party said it was open for cooperation with other political parties to speed up the government formation consistent with the recommendations of al-Marja’iya (the highest Shia authority in Iraq) and the constitutional timeline.

The Islamic Dawa Party has been the ruling party since 2006.

With ongoing disputes between Maliki and Abadi and each participating in the May 12 parliamentary elections separately, the party is likely to lose the position to another Shia bloc.

Abadi, a Shia Muslim, took office in 2014 after eight years of Maliki being in power.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany