Sadrists Likely To Gain Influence

In the immediate aftermath of Iraq's provincial elections, which were held on January 31, the victory of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's State of Law alliance dominated headlines. While State of Law did garner the most votes in 9 of the 14 provinces to have gone to the polls (elections were not held in Kirkuk and the three Kurdish provinces in the north), its 'victory' was not exactly decisive. Indeed, State of Law only won a clear majority of provincial council seats in one province, Basra (winning 20 out of 35 seats), though it very nearly did so in Baghdad (28

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