Parties and Leaders

Former Baath Party

Under the Saddam Hussein regime, in order to get on in any official capacity in Iraq, it was vital to join the Baath Party. Nearly 2.5 million Iraqis were party members.

The fall of the regime has included the destruction of the Baath Party, the political instrument of Saddam Hussein's rule. As a result, anyone who had been a member of the higher tiers of the party was banned from government employment.

Members of the Iraqi Governing Council set up a Supreme National De-Baathifcation Commission, headed by Ahmad Chalabi, to oversee the process.
The policy, however, was heavily criticised by some Iraqis for having eliminating many professionals who could have otherwise contributed to the reconstruction of the war-devastated country.

Since the fall of the regime, many major regime figures have been killed or taken into custody by the US . Some former Baath Party officials have remained, including Saddam Hussein's deputy - Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri. Others have been named on a list issued by the US military of people wanted in connection with the insurgency.

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Kurdish Parties

Photo by the Associated Press

Kurdistan Democratic Party

The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) has dominated Iraqi Kurdish politics for more than 50 years.

After the death of his father Mullah Mustafa in 1979, Massoud Barzani headed the KDP and has led the party through many years of conflict with the Iraqi central government and with local rivals, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).

The Kurdistan Democratic Party is in command of a great number of armed militia fighters, the peshmerga, and is in control of a large area of north-western Iraq.

The party leader, Mr Barzani was also a member of the Iraqi Governing Council.

Patriotoc Union of Kurdistan

Under the leadership of Jalal Talabani, a veteran Kurdish leader, the PUK has created militia forces and a party organization sufficient enough to rival the traditionally dominant Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).

Founded in June 1975, the PUK now claims to be a modern, social-democratic party. The party's literature says the PUK was founded in order to "rebuild and redirect Kurdish society along modern and democratic lines".

Mr Talabani was a member of the Iraqi Governing Council and is currently Interim President of Iraq.

Kurdistan Islamic Union

The Kurdish Islamic Union - Yekgirtu - is the largest Islamic organisation in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Formally established in 1994, the party is said to have ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, a moderate Sunni party well established in the Middle East.

In the 1992 legislative elections in Kurdish-controlled Iraq, the party won third place behind the KDP and PUK.

The party is currently led by Secretary-General Sheikh Salah al-Din Muhammad Baha al-Din.

Yekgirtu is supported mainly by donations from Saudi Islamic organisations, and is said to favor the creation of an Islamic state respecting the rights of the Kurds.

 

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