Baha Araji

Bahaa Al Araji (also transliterated Bahaa al-Aaraji) is an Iraqi politician, a member of the Iraqi National Assembly and the Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Affairs from September 2014 to August 2015. He is a spokesman for the United Iraqi Alliance and a member of the Sadrist Movement which is led by Muqtada as-Sadr. He is also currently the head of the Ahrar bloc.

He was a member of the committee that drafted the Constitution of Iraq, where he opposed the proposal for Shia and Sunni Arab Regions.

During coalition negotiations in 2006 he strongly opposed the inclusion of Iyad Allawi's Iraqi National List in the government, saying they represented a red line drawn in blood. This was a reference to the crackdown that Allawi's Iraqi Interim Government launched against the Mahdi Army.

Personal life

Bahaa Al Araji was born in Kazimiyah, Baghdad, to a large working-class family. He was the 5th oldest child of 11 to Hussein Al-Araji. Education was always important to him despite few opportunities handed to him, nonetheless he excelled in school and soon attended Baghdad University, where he gained a first class BA in law.

Iraq parliamentary Elections 2010

Bahaa Al Araji stood in the 2010 Iraqi Parliamentary Elections for the Nasiriyah district as candidate no.2 for the National Iraqi Alliance. He won a seat in the new government formation with over 40 000 raw votes jus to his name, he was the most popular candidate in the Nasiriyah district. He was nominated as one of the ten names on the sadarist mock election ballot and received 5% of the votes, however the elections outcomes were discarded due to allegations of the voting being biased.

Corruption probe

In August 2015, after his resignation and consecutive Deputy Prime Minister position abolishment by a Al Abadi Government reform, he was targeted by a probe for nine allegations including property racketeering and financial corruption. He is one of the most prominent official to be investigated in the fight against corruption in Iraq.^[1]

Quotes

• "The Mahdi Army and the Sadrists represent a wide sect of the Iraqis and that is why Maliki should support them."

• "The people of Iraq are strong and will pull through everything in time."

References

External links

• Sadr links
• Interview with Bahaa al-Araji of the United Iraqi Alliance, Asharq Alawsat, 2006-10-26
• Iraqi parliamentary election, 2010