Basra: A united anti-Maliki front


Basra, the economic capital of Iraq whose oil output provides the national budget with 90% of its revenue, provided the strongest early indication that Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki’s ‘political majority’ model was in trouble in April’s provincial elections. In 2009, Maliki’s State of Law Coalition (SLC) won an outright majority of seats and was able to make the Dawa Party’s Shaltagh Abbud governor, with control of the council going to the Dawa Party – Iraq Organisation, a key ally within the SLC.