Ali al-Sistani in the context of "Baathist Iraq"

Parliamentary elections were held in Iraq on 30 January 2005 to elect the new National Assembly, alongside governorate elections and a parliamentary election in Kurdistan Region. The 275-member legislature had been created under the Transitional Law during the international occupation. The newly elected body was given a mandate to write a new constitution and exercise legislative functions until the new constitution came into effect. The elections also led to the formation of the Iraqi Transitional Government.

The United Iraqi Alliance, tacitly backed by Shia Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, emerged as the largest bloc with 48% of the vote and 140 out of the total 275 seats. The Democratic Patriotic Alliance of Kurdistan was in second place with 26%, whilst interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's party, the Iraqi List, came third with 14%. In total, twelve parties received enough votes to win a seat in the assembly.

The Najaf Seminary (Arabic: حوزة النجف), also known as the al-Hawza al-Ilmiyya (الحوزة العلمية), is the oldest and one of the most important Shia seminaries (hawza) in the world. It is located near the Imam Ali Shrine in the city of Najaf in Iraq, and also operates a campus in Karbala.

Grand Ayatollah Sayed Ali al-Sistani currently serves as head of the Hawza Al-Ilmiyya in Najaf, which includes two other Ayatollahs - Mohammad Ishaq Al-Fayyad and Bashir al-Najafi. The number of students studying there has waxed and waned in modern times, from 15,000 to 20,000 in the mid-20th century, down to 3000 during the repressive reign of Saddam Hussein, to around 13,000 as of 2014.