Elections took place in Iraq today, they will determine the next Parliament (Parliament dissolved itself October 7th) as well as the next prime minister. Parliament will also get a Speaker and Iraq will get a president. The role of president is purely ceremonial though the current president, Barham Salih, has spent his terms increasing the role of the president beyond what the Constitution dictates. He may or may not have a third term as president after today.
He is a member of the PUK which once shared a spot with the KDP as one of the Kurdistan's two dominant parties. Once. With the CIA seed money, Goran ("Change") emerged and quickly began to challenge the PUK for votes. RUDAW reminds, "In the 2018 election, KDP won eight seats, Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) two, New Generation two, and the Coalition for Democracy and Justice (CDJ), Gorran, and Kurdistan Islamic Group (Komal) each took one." For this election, the once powerful PUK entered into an alliance with Goran in an attempt to increase their votes. Of all the areas people will be watching the turnout in, the KRG is one of the ones of keen interest. There was always talk that turnout would be low in Mosul (in the KRG's Nineveh Province -- where biometric voter i.d. cards were not issued promptly) and that was in part due to issues involving the turnout of Christian voters. But the Kurdistan region is not facing some of the same obstacles that the other areas are.
Keen to see will be whether the KDP -- which holds the position of Prime Minister of Kurdistan and President of Kurdistan -- manages to remain the region's dominant party. By custom (since the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq), the post of President goes to a Kurd, the post of Speaker of Parliament goes to a Sunni and the post of Prime Minister goes to a Shi'ite. By custom, the struggle for these posts is now on.
Of the three, the prize is prime minister. It is the prime minister who rules Iraq -- though some would argue that it's actually the governments of Iran and the United States that rule Iraq.
John Davidson and Ahmed Rasheed (REUTERS) report, "Iraq's parliamentary election on Sunday drew one of the smallest turnouts for years, electoral officials indicated, with the low participation suggesting dwindling trust in political leaders and the democratic system brought in by the 2003 U.S.-led invasion." The political leadership has been corrupt. With the billions in oil revenues that the government of Iraq takes in yearly, there is no reason why poverty should exist in Iraq. But not only does it exist, it is actually increasing. The corrupt leaders have taken public monies. That money, for example, has bought multiple sports cars and homes in Europe for Ahmed al-Maliki, son of forever thug and former prime minister of Iraq Nouri al-Maliki whose (mis)leadership and paranoia helped create ISIS and led to its seizure of Mosul and other areas in 2014. The corruption has continued and worsened. Long cited by Transparency International as one of the five most corrupt nations in the world, Iraq's governmental corruption is now so bad that President Saleh, addressing the United Nations last month, called it one of the greatest security threats to the country.
ALJAZEERA notes, "Two electoral commission officials said the nationwide turnout of eligible voters was 19 percent by midday. Turnout was 44.5 percent in the last election in 2018." Since 2018? The October Revolution. That movement of mainly Shi'ite protesters began in 2019 protesting the corruption, the lack of jobs, the lack of dependable public services (such as electricity and potable water). Louisa Loveluck and Mustafa Salim (WASHINGTON POST) observe:
In effect, Sunday’s election was a referendum on that system, and most Iraqis chose to stay home.
Despite a months-long campaign and millions of dollars spent by foreign governments including the United States to boost trust in the voting process, Iraq’s electoral commission said turnout by midday was only around 20 percent and that it had risen only slowly through the afternoon.
Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi came to office last year vowing early elections after mass protests ousted his predecessor, Adel Abdul Mahdi, in 2019. On Sunday, voters trickled to the polls through some of the streets where security forces had fired live ammunition into crowds and killed 600 during the months-long protests.
Qassim Abdul-Zahra (AP) speaks with two Iraqi citizens:
Muna Hussein, a 22-year-old cinematic makeup artist, said she boycotted the election because she did not feel there was a safe environment “with uncontrolled weapons everywhere,” a reference to the mainly Shiite militias backed by neighboring Iran.
“In my opinion, it isn’t easy to hold free and fair elections under the current circumstances,” she said.
Amir Fadel, a 22-year-old car dealer, disagreed. “I don’t want these same faces and same parties to return,” he said after casting his ballot in Baghdad’s Karradah district.
An Iraqi community member who is Shi'ite notes that she did not vote but that her parents did.
They are supporting Harakat Huqooq which is linked to Iran and whose leader is Hussein Muanis. Among the reasons? Hussein has spoken of their militia laying down arms (once US and other foreign forces are out of the country -- Hussein leads Kataeb Hezbollah). They also see him as a fresh face compared to 71-year-old Nouri al-Maliki (who leads State of Law) -- Hussein is fifty-years-old. They are not impressed with the people who have led in the past and feel that Iraq needs to move beyond "settling old scores and working towards a future" and that politicians like Hussein could lead the country towards that. Herself? She couldn't bring herself to vote for those who attacked her and her friends when they were out in the streets protesting or for those who stayed silent as they were attacked. She's 24-years-old and part of one of the biggest age groups in Iraq. AFP notes, "Sixty percent of Iraq’s population is under 25. For them, the ballot is about the same old faces who are unable to fix a country rich in oil but replete with problems, including a youth unemployment rate of around 40 percent." Shant Shahrigian (NEW YORK DAILY NEWS) offers, "Many young people heeded calls to boycott the election, wary after security forces in 2019 attacked protesters demanding basic public services and an end to corruption. About 600 people were killed and thousands of others injured during the crackdown."
Alex MacDonald (MIDDLE EAST EYE) reports:
While the walls of Karrada were covered with posters and banners urging customers to support the likes of the State of Law, Taqaddum or Fatah coalitions, or any number of political parties, the men in the cafe are arguably representative of the biggest constituency in Iraq - non-voters.
"I threw away my election card," Murtada, a young medical student, told Middle East Eye. "The country is sold, there's no-one to vote for. This country's on its way to hell."
A number of his friends, he added, had gone to the polling stations to "sell their votes" for around 50,000 or 100,000 dinars ($35 to $70) a go, deciding it was worth more to them not to starve than vote in a hopeless election.
When will results be known? Sinan Mahmoud, Haider Husseini and Mina Aldroubi (THE NATIONAL) explain, "The results of Iraq's first elections under new electoral law will be revealed at 3pm local time on Monday afternoon, within 24 hours of polls closing, the Iraqi electoral commission has said. They are likely to be overshadowed by the confirmation of a low voter turnout, despite Iraq's prime minister hailing the process as 'safe and fair' -- a verdict echoed by the electoral commission chairman."
Now the scramble, the post-election scramble, begins. Martin Chulov (GUARDIAN) notes:
Horse trading for the positions is expected to take many months – a process that is likely to result in ministries again being carved up between blocs. “The election allows a veneer of democracy,” said Munther Mansour, a Baghdad resident. “But nothing that comes afterwards is democratic.”
2010 saw the longest amount of time in Iraq between elections and a government being formed. It lasted over eight months and only ended because Joe Biden and the US government brokered The Erbil Agreement -- a legal contract that set the votes aside and allowed second place winner Nouri al-Maliki to have a second term as prime minister
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