The State of Law Coalition, which is the largest party in the alliance that has formed the current Iraqi government, seeks to name former PM Nouri al-Maliki as their candidate for the premiership in the next elections.

Speaking to an Iraqi media outlet on Sunday, spokesperson to the coalition Aqeel al-Fatlawi expressed their intent to name Maliki as their man to lead the government formation process when elections are held, and if they emerge victorious.

“Maliki is still our candidate to head the government in the upcoming elections because the public is demanding it,” he said.

However, the State of Law’s track record in the latest Iraqi elections does not necessarily back Fatlawi’s statement.

When the country held early elections in 2021, Maliki’s supporters came out far from victorious, however after months of stalling the government formation process with their “blocking third” in the parliament and eventually leading the election victors to withdraw from the parliament, they were able to form the government through an alliance with Kurds and Sunnis.

The events following the 2021 elections were shocking to many in Iraq. Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose Sadrist movement had achieved 73 seats, announced his complete withdrawal from the Iraqi political process and withdrew all his MPs from the parliament after eight months of continuous attempts to form the government through an alliance with the Sunnis, led by then parliamentary speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi, and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).

However, three years into the Coordination Framework government, which Maliki’s party is a major part of, it seems as though they no longer fear a Sadrist rival, and have even tried to communicate with them regarding the next elections.

“The first message we sent to the (Sadrist) movement was to portray our will to hold early elections if it meant the return the Sadrists to the political process,” Fatlawi said. “But to date, the movement has not responded neither to the State of Law, nor to the Coordination Framework.”

In 2021, Shiites were split into two. The Sadrists wanted to stray away from the country’s consensus style government formation that had been adapted since the US invasion in 2003. Instead, they were hoping for a majority government that would exclude the Coordination Framework.

The Framework, on the other hand, were eager to maintain their hold on power and the only way to do that, given their defeat to the Sadrists in the elections, was through a consensus government.

While Sadr has been away from the political process for around three years now, his massive support base seems unshaken.

A single tweet from Sadr has on several occasions led thousands of his supporters to the streets, and a single message has sent them back home as though he had a magic wand that guided the public.