Iraqis headed to the polls early Sunday morning to vote in the early parliamentary elections. It was held in response to a protest movement that emerged due to frustration with corruption and inadequate public services.
The Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) announced the initial turnout was 41% with the lowest recorded in the capital, Baghdad.
The turnout in the Kurdistan Region province of Duhok was 53%, the highest across Iraq.
According to the election commission, 9,077,779 voters cast a ballot. Two weeks before the election, with turnout expected to be low, the commission announced it would calculate turnout as the percent of voters who have biometric voter cards, not the number of eligible voters. Just 36% of the more than 25 million eligible voters participated.
Many voters stayed home, others reportedly spoiled their ballots. Some were unable to cast their ballots as technical issues surfaced with the voting machines. One man told Rudaw that a machine at a Soran polling station was unable to read fingerprints - a biometric identification issue that he said ultimately led to his vote “going to waste.” A voter in Kirkuk said that despite presenting his voting card and biometrics, the machine “wasn’t recognizing any of it” and he was unable to vote.
There were also reports that armed groups prevented voters from entering polling stations in areas disputed between Erbil and Baghdad. “This is unacceptable and a clear violation of the democratic right to vote in free and fair elections,” Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said in a statement.
In the lead up to the election, voters and parties questioned the legitimacy of the vote that was held in an environment where powerful militias operate outside of government control, activists and election candidates are threatened and the electoral commission and political elites are accused of fraud.
The Iraqi government imposed strict security measures and enlisted a large international monitoring presence as part of its attempts to address multiple security concerns and allay fears of fraud, vote-buying, and voter intimidation. The process was monitored by 1,877 international and 160,148 local observers, commission spokesperson Jumana al-Ghalai told Rudaw.
Over a hundred Iraqi and Kurdish political parties and blocs ran in the election.
The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and New Generation both increased their seats in Erbil province at the expense of the other Kurdish parties, according to preliminary, unofficial results. Erbil had a turnout of 46%. The KDP took 11 seats, New Generation three, and the Kurdistan Coalition won one out of the province’s 15 seats that were up for grabs.
The Sadrist bloc which is led by prominent Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is expected to win the highest number of seats in the legislative body.
The vote was called to meet the demand of mainly young protesters who took their widespread desire to shake up the ruling system to the streets with mass protests in 2019, dubbed the Tishreen (October) movement and took place under a new electoral law that radically changed the system, introducing a single non-transferable vote.
There are over 3,200 candidates competing for 329 seats in the parliament. Nine seats are reserved for minorities and there are 67 candidates vying for these spots.
Turnout has steadily decreased with every vote since 2003. In 2018, the turnout was 44%.
