Iraqi voters have largely chosen political continuity, despite growing discontent with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The results of the April 30 parliamentary elections—just the third such vote since the fall of Saddam Hussein and the first since the withdrawal of US troops in 2011—released Monday showed Al-Maliki’s State of Law alliance winning around 93 of the parliament’s 328 seats. No other bloc, including those led by the prime minister’s Shiite rivals, won more than 30 seats. The incumbent’s decisive victory is particularly good news for Iran at a time when Tehran’s own foreign policy outlook is evolving.

Democratic politics in Iraq will always be dominated by the Shia, but intra-communal power struggles within each of Iraq’s three principal groups—the Shia, Sunnis and Kurds—will continually challenge the power dynamic in Baghdad from election to election. Many of Tehran’s closest Shiite allies in Iraq—namely, the movements led by Muqtada al-Sadr and Ammar al-Hakim—had been lobbying for the removal of al-Maliki, Iraq’s only prime minister since the country’s constitution was ratified in 2005.

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