Iraq’s parliamentary elections were held on Sunday, 10 October 2021. It was their first election since the mass protests that took place on 25 October 2019 in several states in Iraq against corruption. These elections decide the members of the Council of Representatives who will further elect the president and confirm Iraq’s prime minister.
Shi’ite Muslim cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr’s party emerged as the winner of the Iraqi elections, with former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as a close second.
Muqtada al-Sadr’s power over Iraq has increased since the previous parliamentary election in 2018, where his party won 54 seats. This time they are said to have won more than 70 seats in the 329 seat parliament.
However, since none of the parties won a majority of seats in parliament, negotiations to choose a prime minister to run the government are expected to take weeks or even months.
Sadr’s party, the Sadrist Movement, is just one of several parties that will have to enter negotiations to form a coalition government.
The Story Behind the Protest
The protests saw a massive amount of bloodshed. The reason for these protests was the hike in gasoline prices by about 50 percent.
The citizens did not take this decision by the government very well and demanded their leaders to leave and asked for the dissolution of the parliament.
The biggest protest took place in its capital Baghdad, where people tried to cross a bridge to reach the location of the main government offices. That’s when the security forces responded by open firing on unarmed protesters and majorly young people.
New Rules to Win Voters Confidence
The parliamentary elections, which were set to occur in 2022, were brought forward by many months due to the protests. The government of Iraq has taken several measures to reassure voters of the credibility of the electoral process.
A new electoral law was approved to ensure free, fair, and transparent balloting. Instead of designating each of Iraq’s 18 governorates as a single district, the new law increases the number of electoral districts from 18 to 83.
Iraq has also moved towards an SNTV (Single Non-Transferable Vote) system as opposed to the Webster/Sainte-Laguë method used previously.
Public Lose Trust
Despite the measure taken by the government, the elections have only seen a 41 percent initial turnout, and it has been the lowest turnout recorded from the time Saddam Hussein was removed from his office in 2003.
This shows the diminishing trust of citizens in the government and political class. The 2019 protests have resulted in over 600 deaths, with many more people injured. Activists who were a part of the protest have boycotted the elections by refusing to vote.
Iraq has been plagued by problems such as increasing poverty and unemployment for many years now.
Many believe that the political system cannot change, and these elections will bring in the same people responsible for the country’s current state.
Hopefully, the newly elected members will read the pulse of the people on the street and set things for a better tomorrow.
