Iraqi leader bests rivals

BAGHDAD — Two years ago, he was dismissed as a transitory figure from a minor Shiite party — a weak leader unwilling to face down Shiite militias and reach out to disaffected Sunnis.

Today, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is Iraq's rising political star, having crushed the militias and bested his Shiite rivals in elections for ruling provincial councils.

The election commission announced Thursday that al-Maliki's party swept to victory over Shiite rivals during last weekend's vote — a rousing endorsement of his crackdown on extremists that has brought relative peace to much of Iraq after nearly six years of war.

Those results, which must be certified, put al-Maliki in a strong position ahead of parliamentary elections late this year and could bolster Washington's confidence that it can begin withdrawing more of its 140,000 troops.

Al-Maliki pulled it off by reinventing himself, shedding his longtime image as a hardline Shiite activist. His allies ran on a platform that emphasized security over religion and Iraqi patriotism over sectarian divisions.

Few could have predicted all that when al-Maliki took office in May 2006 at a time the country was reeling from insurgent attacks and Sunni-Shiite slaughter.

The dour-faced al-Maliki was chosen by Shiite powerbrokers because he came from a small party that posed little threat to the dominant Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council.

Instead, the Supreme Council trailed Thursday in every Shiite province, including its fiefdom of Najaf.

Rather than carping on his weakness, al-Maliki's critics now complain that he harbors dictatorial tendencies and is trying to accrue too much power.

Some Western diplomats believe al-Maliki's biggest problem will be fending off challenges from fellow Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds — who all underestimated him before but now have a strong vested interest in curbing his power.

His party's biggest victories came in Baghdad and Basra, Iraq's second largest city, where voters rewarded him for last spring's offensive crushing Shiite militias that had ruled the streets for years.

The election commission announced that al-Maliki's coalition claimed 38 percent of the votes in Baghdad, followed by allies of anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and a Sunni party with 9 percent each.