Jalal Talabani, Iraq's first non-Arab president, is head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan [GETTY]
The coalition list which won the 2005 elections is the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA). Comprising mainly religious Shia parties, it was formed with the blessing of Iraq's most influential Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al- Sistani.
At the time, it consisted of 18 conservative Shia Islamist groups, although it continued to be dominated by just three: the Islamic Dawa Party, led by Nouri al-Maliki, the current prime minister; the pro-Iranian Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, led by Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim; and the Iraqi nationalist Sadr movement, loyal to populist Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Politically, the coalition's platform was based on the principles of security, sovereignty and reconstruction; it promised to crack down on the insurgency and corruption.
But by 2006, the coalition was heavily criticised for failing to tackle both issues during its first year in power.
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