The CPI split away from the Iraqi Communist Party during the latter period of Saddam Hussein's regime.
Many saw the CPI as a puppet party of the regime, whose existence would give the outside world an impression that the country was a multi-party state.
It seemed the intentions of the party would've been to join the government as a junior partner within the National Progressive Front, similar to the coalition of the same name set-up in neighbouring Syria, but the idea was later discarded.
The CPI was never given possibility to register as a legal party, though its leader was in the Iraqi parliament as of 2001.
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