Iraq election poster (Sharif Ali bin Hussein and Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawar)

Iraq election poster featuring a photographic portrait of Ghazi al-Yawar, Vice-President of Iraq, on the right, an image of shaking hands above a map of Iraq in the centre and a photographic portrait of Sharif Ali bin Hussein on the left. Sharif Ali bin al-Hussein (b.1956) is pretender to the Iraqi throne and leader of the Iraqi Constitutional Monarchy. He is cousin of Iraq’s last king, King Faisal II, who was assassinated and deposed in a coup in 1958. In 1996, Al-Sharif’s Constitutional Monarchy Movement was involved in an attempt to overthrow Saddam Hussein. In the January 2005 elections, his party obtained only 0.16% of the popular vote. The Iraqi President, Ghazi Mashal Ajil al- Yawar, on the right, is a Sunni who was president in the interim government, heading the Iraqi Party, between May 2004 and April 2005. The poster was obtained by an Australian Defence Force member, serving with 'Operation Catalyst', Australia's contribution to the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Iraq, which began in July 2003.