VI.

Government

From 1968 until 2003 the Iraqi government was a dictatorship dominated by a single political party, the Baath Party. From 1979 until 2003, the Baath Party and the government were controlled by Saddam Hussein. Under Hussein, the people had little if any influence on the government. There were occasional elections to the legislature, and Hussein was once confirmed as president in 1995 in a public referendum, but none of these seemingly democratic procedures was truly democratic. Until 2003 Iraq was governed by a 1969 constitution that defined Iraq as “a sovereign people’s democratic republic,” dedicated to the ultimate realization of a single Arab state and to the establishment of a socialist system.

A.

Post-Hussein Government

A U.S.-led invasion toppled Hussein’s regime in 2003, and the United States began the process of establishing an interim Iraqi government. The U.S.-led coalition established the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), headed by U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer III. The CPA selected a 25-member Iraqi governing council, with seats distributed among the country’s different religious and ethnic groups as well as existing political organizations.

A.1.

Interim Constitution of 2004

The Iraqi governing council approved an interim Iraqi constitution, also known as the transitional administrative law, in March 2004. The constitution was hailed as one of the most democratic in the region, consisting of a bill of rights that guaranteed personal freedoms, including freedom of speech and freedom of religion.

The interim constitution was approved despite the opposition of 12 Shia members of the 25-member council, who objected to several provisions they considered undemocratic. These provisions were also opposed by the most powerful religious leader in Iraq, the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a Shia cleric. Sistani objected to the fact that the interim constitution was drafted by a handpicked council and said it would not be legitimate until it was approved by a democratically elected national assembly.

Shia dissenters argued particularly against a provision requiring a two-thirds vote by at least three of Iraq’s provinces in favor of the permanent constitution. The Kurds, who currently have autonomy (self-rule) in three provinces, sought this provision as a way of guaranteeing continued autonomy and other democratic rights for the Kurdish minority. The Shia dissenters objected that this provision gave too much veto power over the constitution to a minority of voters, including Arab Sunnis, many of whom were supporters of Saddam Hussein.

A.2.

Interim Government

On June 1, 2004, the Iraqi governing council announced the formation of a new interim government and dissolved itself. This new government was led by a prime minister and a president. The leaders were assisted by a deputy prime minister, two vice presidents, and a cabinet. On June 28 Bremer dissolved the CPA and formally transferred sovereignty to the new Iraqi interim government.

General elections to select a transitional National Assembly were held at the end of January 2005. A Shia coalition, the United Iraqi Alliance (UAI), won 51 percent of the vote, followed by the Kurdistān Alliance (a coalition of the Kurdistān Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistān) with 26 percent and interim prime minister Allawi’s political group with 14 percent. About 58 percent of registered Iraqi voters participated in the election, which was boycotted by most of the nation’s Sunnis. Sunni Arabs had only 17 seats in the 275-member parliament, although they represented about 20 percent of the population. In April the National Assembly selected Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani as Iraq’s new president, and Talabani named Shia leader Ibrahim al-Jaafari the country’s new prime minister.

A.3.

Permanent Constitution

The newly elected parliament finalized the language of a permanent constitution in the summer of 2005. Although extra Sunni Arab members were appointed to the committee, they were largely marginalized. The resulting document said that Islam is the religion of state, that the civil parliament may pass no legislation contrary to the established rules of Islam, and that Iraqis may opt to be judged by their religious community’s canon law in matters of personal status. At the same time, the document guaranteed civil liberties.

The new charter also provided for a weak central government and allowed provinces to band together into provincial confederacies, and to claim 100 percent of new petroleum and natural gas finds in their territories. This very loose federalism and the prospect that the Kurds and Shiites might monopolize future oil wealth, depriving the Sunni Arabs of their share, enraged the Sunni Arabs. On October 15, 2005, the three largely Sunni Arab provinces of Anbar, Nineveh, and Salahuddin rejected the constitution, but it passed elsewhere in the country, and the margin of rejection in one Sunni province was less than two-thirds, allowing it to pass.

B.

Political Divisions

Iraq is divided into 18 provinces, of which 3 are officially designated as a Kurdish autonomous region. The Kurdish autonomous region, first established in 1970, has an elected legislature. This region came under UN and coalition protection after the Persian Gulf War, to prevent Hussein from taking military action against rebellious Kurds. However, infighting among Kurdish groups rendered the government largely ineffective. In 1998 two rival Kurdish parties signed an agreement, brokered by the United States, that provided for a transitional power-sharing arrangement. However, the agreement has not been implemented, and each of the two parties governs its own slice of Kurdish territory.

C.

Political Parties

The leading political organization in Iraq under Saddam Hussein was the Arab Baath Socialist Party (see Baath Party), which bases its policies on pan-Arab and socialist principles. Other political groups included the Iraqi Communist Party (ICP), the Kurdistān Democratic Party (KDP), the Patriotic Union of Kurdistān (PUK), and a few other Kurdish parties. The two most important Shia opposition parties were the Da‘wa Party and the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), which was subsequently renamed the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI). Until Hussein’s overthrow, all these opposition parties were illegal outside the Kurdish autonomous region. Following the U.S. invasion, the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), a coalition of Shia groups including the Da‘wa Party and SIIC, emerged as the dominant political force in Iraq. The Kurdistān Alliance, a coalition of the Kurdistān Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistān, emerged as the second most powerful political force and the most important political grouping among the Kurds. Among Sunnis, the Iraqi Accord Front, a fundamentalist religious coalition, was the leading electoral force. The Baath Party remained a legal and open party.

D.

Defense

Under the Hussein government, military training in Iraq was compulsory for all males when they reached the age of 18; it consisted of about two years in active service and an additional period in the reserve. In 2004 the Iraqi army had about 79,000 members (including a large active reserves); the air force, 200 members; and the navy, 700 members.

Following the U.S. invasion, the U.S. civil administrator for Iraq dissolved the Iraqi military and outlined plans for a new force that would be limited to about 40,000 members. While establishing and training this new Iraqi force, the United States continued to station more than 100,000 U.S. troops in Iraq following the transfer of sovereignty to Iraqis in June 2004. The 2004 interim constitution called for the dissolution of private militias, such as those maintained by Kurds and some Shia political parties, although it allowed the Kurds to maintain their militia for an interim period.

E.

International Organizations

Iraq is a charter member of the United Nations (UN) and a founding member of the Arab League. The country is also a founding member of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), which promotes solidarity among nations where Islam is an important religion, and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).