President Jalal Talabani Children 4 | President Jalal Talabani Name Baha Araji Nationality Iraqi | |
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Political party United Iraqi Alliance | ||
Bahaa Al Araji (also transliterated Bahaa al-Aaraji) is an Iraqi politician, who was a member of the Iraqi National Assembly until 2014. He served as 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 was succeeded as the head of the Ahrar bloc in parliament by Dia al-Asadi.
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He was a member of the committee that drafted the Constitution of Iraq, where he opposed the proposal for Shia and Sunni Arab Regions. [1]
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 votes, becoming the most popular candidate in the Nasiriyah district. He was nominated as one of the ten names on the Sadrist 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.