Secular Shiite Ayad Allawi is staging a surprising political comeback by pushing a secular & nationalist agenda & drawing support from Sunnis.

Ayad Allawi, a former Iraqi prime minister and leader of the Iraqiya coalition in Sunday's elections, greeted supporters at a rally in Baghdad

From The New York Times:

The serpentine career of Ayad Allawi, who served briefly as Iraq’s interim prime minister five years ago, has taken another unlikely turn: a secular Shiite with little taste for campaigning, he stands a strong chance of winning the most votes in Sunday’s parliamentary elections as the leader of a coalition that is attracting deep support from Sunni Muslims.

He has a history of blurring expected lines: Once a staunch Baathist, he survived an assassination attempt by ax ordered by Saddam Hussein and later developed deep ties to the Central Intelligence Agency. Now he is staging a surprising political comeback by pushing a secular and nationalist agenda that has made him the most formidable alternative to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki.

His candidacy also pricks the nerve centers of some Iraqis nostalgic for the return of strong, even dictatorial, leaders.

“To us, Allawi is a second Saddam Hussein,” said Abu Sara Ahmed, 35, speaking on a street corner in Karada, an upper-middle-class Baghdad neighborhood. “The Iraqi people are always in need of someone who can bring fear and respect for authority.

“We don’t want someone who is afraid to kill, someone who is a coward. You have to kill a criminal; you can’t just put him in prison.”

Sunnis in this country fear that the planned withdrawal of American troops, scheduled to begin in earnest after the elections, could increase sectarian violence. The government’s disqualification of many Sunni candidates as Baathists, and its failure to prevent several major bomb blasts, have cut into Mr. Maliki’s Sunni support.

Sunnis also cite the widespread belief that Mr. Maliki, a Shiite, is loyal to Iran, which like Iraq is majority Shiite.

Mr. Allawi has positioned himself as an Arab leader who can work with regional governments. He recently visited Saudi Arabia, Syria and Lebanon, trips that unnerved some in Iraq, where worries over foreign influence fester.

While in exile during the 1980s and 1990s, Mr. Allawi worked with the C.I.A. to undermine Saddam Hussein’s government, in operations that included undertaking acts of sabotage, according to former intelligence agents.

Despite his reputation as a strong leader, Mr. Allawi is criticized as failing to campaign hard enough.