ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - In what appears to be an attempt to win allies in next year’s parliamentary elections, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has helped Fayli Kurds in Baghdad set up a new political group.
According to Ali Fayli, a community leader in Baghdad, the new group -- called the Peace Organization for Fayli Kurds -- is expected to run in next April’s legislative elections.
Fayli told Rudaw that Haydar Isa Ali, a Fayli political figure, is to head the new organization, which has already registered with the Election Commission.
The Iraqi capital is home to nearly a million Fayli Kurds, who are Kurdish by ethnicity but Shiites by faith. Most Kurds are Sunnis.
Maliki, who is also Shiite, has often attended Fayli cultural and religious events. Meanwhile, the Kurdish parties in the north, who have offices in Baghdad, have also tried to win favor with the Faylis.
The head of the new organization was once a close ally of the Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq that is headed by Ammar al-Hakim, but recently switched sides and is now closer to Maliki’s Dawa Party, according to Ali Fayli.
“Ali did run in Iraq’s last elections under a different name, but he didn’t win enough votes to enter parliament,” Fayli said.
Thousands of Fayli Kurds were expelled by the former Iraqi regime, which refused to recognize them as Iraqis and labeled them as Iranian. After the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003, many of these Fayli families returned to Iraq and most live in Baghdad today.
