Sadrist Movement declares its candidate for PM post
Najaf / NINA / The Ahrar, the political wing of the Sadrist movement announced its candidate for the prime minister post, which will hopefully be announced after the end of the next parliamentary elections.
A media source from the Ahrar bloc, refused to be named, told the reporter of the National Iraqi News Agency / NINA / that "Ahd Radio, of the Sadrist movement, announced the name of its candidate for prime minister, the governor of Maysan Ali Douai."
https://www.ninanews.com/english/News...ar95_VQ=HEDHKF
A Sadrist Governor Is a Folk Hero to Iraqis
Adam Ferguson for The New York Times
‘It doesn't make a difference if you are Sunni or Shiite or Christian. I don’t differentiate between anyone.” Ali Dwai, governor of Maysan Province
By TIM ARANGO
Published: May 3, 2013
AMARA, Iraq - CLAD in his trademark blue auto mechanic’s outfit, the governor was mobbed by his constituents as he walked the dust-choked streets of the old city here, where the poor sell textiles and pet birds.
One man poked his head in the scrum and said, simply, “I just wanted to give you a kiss.”
Another man, sweat pouring from his brow, explained the commotion: “He’s gold. He takes care of everyone. He doesn’t make any difference between a Muslim or a Christian. You won’t find one person here who doesn’t love him.”
For Iraqis around the country, most of whom are fed up with poor services, sectarian politics, and violence, the governor, Ali Dwai of Maysan Province, provides a rare example of democracy’s potential.
On one popular Facebook page where Iraqis gather, a man wrote, “If it was in my hands I would make a coup and hand him the state.” Another wrote, “If we had one of him in each province, Iraq would be better than Dubai.”
Everyone, it seems, loves Mr. Dwai, a follower of the anti-American Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr and perhaps Iraq’s most popular politician. In a country where leaders are separated from the people by bodyguards and blast walls, and where the space between politicking and bribery is thin, Mr. Dwai has become something of a folk hero.
And not just here. Through social media, Iraqis everywhere can see for themselves his intimate interactions with citizens, or his delivering on promises to improve services and fostering investments in everything from bridges to sewage systems to amusement parks.
“A leader must be close to the people,” Mr. Dwai said in an interview in his cavernous office after a morning touring public works projects where at each stop he was accosted by citizens offering thanks or asking for favors.
Mr. Dwai’s popularity, though, reflects something more than excitement for a hard-working politician. As the only provincial governor of Mr. Sadr’s political party, he represents the maturation of a grass-roots political movement that has sought to mimic Lebanon’s Hezbollah by fusing Shiite faith, military strength and a concern for the common citizen to build political power.
Mr. Sadr, who inherited his authority from his father, a revered cleric who was murdered by Saddam Hussein’s henchmen, once directed a militia, the Mahdi Army, that fought the Americans and, during the country’s sectarian war, Iraq’s Sunnis. Now, he is seeking power through peaceful means, in part through politicians like Mr. Dwai, who was installed in 2011 after a deal in which Mr. Sadr agreed to back Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki for a second term.
“What they are trying to do is demonstrate that they can deliver services in the south,” said Marisa Cochrane Sullivan, a fellow at the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War who has written about the Sadrist movement. “This is part of their transformation. They can no longer make the case that they have to be there to protect the Shiites from Al Qaeda or other Sunni groups.”
She added, “The Sadrist strategy is to find areas where they can win the art of political argument.”
MR. SADR emerged from the national elections in 2010 as a kingmaker whose support allowed Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki to secure a second term. With the majority of results in from the recent local elections, it appears Mr. Sadr’s support has diminished in much of the south — where leaders have not had the same success as Mr. Dwai — with the exception of Maysan Province.
The results underscored two things: that Mr. Sadr has more work to do in expanding his constituency through governing in much of the south, and that Mr. Dwai is the movement’s brightest star.
Amara, the capital of Maysan Province, lies in Iraq’s Shiite heartland not far from the Iranian border. The area was once a bloody arena for Hussein’s 1991 crackdown on his rebellious Shiite population and later, under the American occupation, a battleground for militias backed by Iran.
When American troops were preparing to leave Iraq at the end of 2011, the area was still considered so dangerous that American commanders paid local sheiks to clear the roadways of homemade bombs and Iraqi security forces carried out a wide-ranging military operation to drive out the armed groups.
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/04/wo...qis.html?_r=1&
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Sadrist offers five candidates for prime minister, including Douai
Sun Apr 27 2014 14:16 | (Voice of Iraq)
Alsumaria News / Baghdad
Announced a coalition of the Liberal's Sadrist movement, on Monday, for the provision of five candidates for the post of prime minister, including the governor of Maysan Ali Douai.
The head of the coalition of the Liberal Mohammed Darraji in an interview for "Alsumaria News", that "some political blocs have one candidate presidential Cabinet," noting that "we Kttiar chest of our five candidates for this position, including the governor of Maysan Ali Douai required."
Darraji added that "the Sadrist movement seeks to build government services and is not a crisis with the participation of all parties and political blocs without marginalization of any party or a component in the next government."
He Darraji, a housing minister in the current government, that "our goal to provide services and the citizen needs to build a state of institutions able to provide the services citizens", adding that "the trend will announce the names of the four remaining after the elections, as well as political alliances."
The parliamentary election is the biggest event in Iraq, they determine the cluster, which nominates the prime minister and take over the top positions in the state, is scheduled to take place at the end of the month of April 2014, and subsequently began political movements active in several directions to form alliances in order to contest the election.
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