( CNN ) -- Days ahead of national elections , Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has announced plans to rehire 20,000 former Iraqi army officers who served under former leader Saddam Hussein . The officers will be reinstated into the new Iraqi army , said an official with the ministry of defense . The move garnered criticism as being a political ploy and was surprising in some circles after al-Maliki 's campaign rhetoric against Hussein 's Baath Party . Several candidates who planned to stand in the upcoming election have been banned by the country 's Accountability and Justice Commission because of evidence of them `` glorifying '' the Baath Party . Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman said al-Maliki was simply trying to secure more votes . `` This contradicts his anti-Baathist election campaign and it is very obvious that he wants to appeal to voters . '' A few weeks after the 2003 invasion of Iraq , top U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer dissolved Baathist institutions , including the Iraqi army , that were viewed as threats against building a new Iraqi society . The Baath Party was declared illegal and many Sunni Arabs lost their government jobs . As a result , the Sunni Arab community became disenfranchised -- many embraced the rising insurgency and stayed away from the first elections in 2005 . The tensions led to pitched battles between Shiites and Sunni Arabs in the streets of Baghdad and other Iraqi cities . Over the years , the United States has worked to get on the good side of the Sunni Arabs , bring them into the country 's new political culture , and persuade them to accept the new Iraq . In a separate development , a member of an al Qaeda in Iraq cell responsible for several dozen assassinations in and around Baghdad has been arrested , the U.S. military said . Iraqi security forces seized the militant in a rural area about 38 kilometers , or almost 24 miles , southwest of the capital . The cell is believed to have conducted nearly 50 assassinations . The arrest occurred ahead of Iraq 's March 7 national elections , and the military says intelligence reports indicate that the al Qaeda in Iraq fighters `` are increasingly staging politically motivated assassinations '' to undermine the Iraqi government and the upcoming polls . CNN 's Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report .
Iraq to hire thousands of former soldiers who worked under Saddam Hussein . The U.S. government has been trying for years to get the Iraqi army and police forces into a state where they can fight ISIS without American help. After the 2003 invasion of Iraq Baathist institutions were dissolved . Many former Baath party members became marginalized and joined the insurgency .