KDP calls on Sadrist movement and withdrawn parties to participate in election

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) on Saturday called on the Sadrist movement and other political parties that have withdrawn from the upcoming Iraqi elections to review their decision and participate in the elections “for the sake of the Iraqi people” and the country's political process.

“As the KDP, we ask of the Sadrist movement and all 26 parties that have announced that they would not participate in the elections, to review their decision and participate in the elections for the sake of the Iraqi people, as it was a request of the Iraqi people and a necessity to serve the political process of Iraq and create good rule,” read a statement from the KDP spokesperson Mahmood Mohammed.

The Sadrist movement was the first to announce its withdrawal from the elections when its leader, prominent Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, declared he will not run. “I announce that I am withdrawing my hand from all those who are working with this government, the current and the upcoming, even if they had allegiance to us, the family of Sadr,” Sadr said in a televised speech.

Sadr does not hold an elected position himself, but he leads the Sairoon coalition, parliament’s largest bloc.

Other parties soon jumped on the bandwagon, the most prominent of them being the Iraqi Communist Party, who allied with Sairoon in the 2018 election. The Iraqi Platform led by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, the National Dialogue Front led by Sunni leader Salih al-Mutlaq, the Iraqi National House, a party formed by a group of October protesters, and a number of other small parties also joined.

The elections are only two months away.

Early elections were one of the key demands of protesters who took to the streets to condemn government corruption and a lack of services across central and southern Iraq in October 2019.

As of early July, more than 24 million people had been registered to vote in the elections, including 120,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).

In an attempt to prevent the allegations of fraud that surrounded the 2018 vote, the electoral commission said last month that, immediately after casting a ballot, voters' biometric cards will be rendered invalid and taken away.

Iraqi President Barham Salih has suggested the electoral commission announce results within 24 hours of polls closing via a live broadcast. He also proposed banning the use of voter cards that do not include biometric data.

There were initial attempts to form a broad Kurdish coalition, but the parties failed to find common ground and, apart from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Gorran alliance, the other parties will contest the vote independently.

The KDP will field 55 candidates in eleven provinces. The Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) will not contest the election, but are supporting six independent candidates. The recently rebranded Kurdistan Justice Group (Komal) is putting forward five candidates. New Generation will also participate in the vote as a stand-alone party.