BAGHDAD — Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the head of Iraq’s largest Shiite political party, died Wednesday, creating a leadership vacuum that could weaken the bloc before the January parliamentary election.
Hakim, 59, died in Tehran, where he was being treated for lung cancer, his relatives and associates said.
Leaders of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq are expected to announce after Hakim’s burial in Najaf this week that his son Ammar will become the new head of the party, Supreme Council officials said.
However, Ammar al-Hakim, who is in his late 30s, is widely seen as too young and inexperienced to command all factions of the party and could face a leadership challenge.
The younger Hakim has been passed over to lead a newly announced Shiite alliance, officials said. Instead, Supreme Council elder Humam Hamoudi is poised to lead the alliance, which does not include Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Iraqi officials across the political spectrum expressed sorrow over the passing of Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, a central figure in Iraqi politics who in recent years masterfully managed to stay in the good graces of Washington as well as Tehran.
He was one of the architects of the United Iraqi Alliance, the Shiite-led coalition that won the most seats in the December 2005 parliamentary election. He was widely cred ited with leading Shiites to power after decades of oppression by Saddam Hussein, a Sunni.
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