Tag: Ayad Allawi

RTX5OXNX.jpg Credit: Khalid Al-Mousily/Reuters Despite growing up as the daughter of Iraq’s former prime minister and earning an international relations degree from a prestigious British university, Sarah Ayad Allawi feels many of the same political frustrations as other 29-year-olds in Iraq. Allawi wanted to run as a legislative candidate of the National Accord political party, the party of her father Ayad Allawi, interim prime minister from 2004 to 2005, in the elections Saturday. They are the voice for an underrepresented demographic, representing only 6 percent of the parliament in a country where the median age is 19. “The Iraqi people are ready to pick new faces,” said first-time voter Mohammed Saleh, 22, a computer engineering student in Baghdad. Related: Fifteen years after the US entered Iraq, Baghdad breathes new life “From what I see and hear from youth on the ground and in social media, I think there is a real chance for change,” said Saleh, who supports Sa'iroon, an electoral alliance between supporters of the 44-year-old influential and independent Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and the secular Iraqi Communist Party. Many served in the militia last year in the fight against ISIS. He participated in a December session of Bashar’s political youth forum and is now running as a candidate with Abadi’s Victory Alliance in the upcoming election. “Just because a candidate is young does not mean he is better,” Abbas said. “I hope people vote for me based on my record of community service and my professional qualifications as an engineer to advocate and guide our country’s reconstruction program.” Gilgamesh Nabeel reported from Istanbul. Support PRI with a monthly donation TODAY!

BAGHDAD: In the sweltering heat of Mexico '86, Ahmed Radhi and Basil Gorgis pulled on the same jerseys to represent Iraq's football team in its sole World Cup Finals. "We have more confidence in them than the politicians, who have changed nothing," Hassan says. The National Alliance is led by Iraq's Vice President Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite, and parliamentary speaker Salim al-Juburi, a Sunni. "This is what the people want now." Other candidates, sporting or otherwise, have more narrow motivations. Now administrator for the national team, Gorgis is running in the Kurdish city of Arbil and says he seeks to protect the interests of Christians. Sabbar is number 10 on the list of the "Tamaddun" group, which advocates a secular state. Not all the former footballers running in the elections here are political novices. Other contenders include Taleb Faysal, the president of Iraq's weightlifting federation, who is on the list for former prime minister Nuri al-Maliki's "Rule of Law Alliance." "We have confidence in none of the candidates, because we know they will only think of themselves once in parliament," says Imane Kazem in the capital.