WITH his State of the Law alliance beating all other electoral blocs, Nouri Maliki has now every chance of becoming Iraq’s prime minister for a third consecutive term. Even though full results of the April 30 polls will take time, his Shia-led State of Law group seems headed towards a convincing win, with other alliances trailing far behind. He himself has polled the highest number of votes for an individual — 721,000. This is astonishing for a leader who had been roundly blamed by the opposition, that includes Shia groups, for failing to control sectarian violence which this year alone has resulted in more than 3,500 deaths. Sectarian terror is now the oil-rich Arab country’s scourge, and seems to be rising again. The peak was reached in 2006 when 35,000 fell victim to terrorism. It then dropped, with 2012 seeing ‘only’ 5,000 deaths. In 2013, there was a surge — 8,000 killed. If this is not checked by the new government, Iraq could face a serious threat to its existence, especially because the Sunni-majority, oil-rich Kurdistan, already enjoying a measure of autonomy, could think in terms of independence.

All said and done, the third general election — the first since the American withdrawal in 2011 — with an impressive 63pc turnout shows the Iraqi people’s determination to live in a democratic dispensation. In all probability, Mr Maliki will be able to cobble together a cabinet whose first concern must be security — the Syrian civil war has also created pressures for Iraq and militants allied to Al Qaeda have moved into Syria. In Iraq itself polling was not possible in parts of the Anbar province because of the threats of the militant group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. While the new government will, of course be responsible for meeting the sectarian challenge, it is the duty of all sections of the Iraqi people, especially the lawmakers, to give peace to their country by making a success of the democratic experiment.

Published in Dawn, May 21st, 2014