In a statement, the movement said that it “will not participate in the provincial council elections at its upcoming date due to the delay in convening its first general conference to elect a new leadership.”
Iraq will hold provincial council elections on December 18, the first of their kind since 2013. The councils, created by the 2005 Iraqi constitution following the fall of Saddam Hussein, are powerful bodies that hold significant power in the country, including setting the budgets for several sectors such as education, health, and transport.
The provincial elections will mark the return of the controversial Sainte-Laguë voting method, reverting back to the single-constituency per province system instead of the multiple-constituency system that was adopted for the 2021 parliamentary elections.
Parliament dissolved the Sainte-Laguë system in response to massive protests against corruption and unemployment that engulfed the country in October 2019. Protestors accused the councils of being rife with corruption.
Emtidad was formed out of the Tishreen protest movement to contest the 2021 Iraqi parliamentary elections and considers itself representatives of the thousands of people who took to the streets in 2019 and brought down the government of former prime minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi.
One of its demands was the dissolution of the Sainte-Laguë system, which favors better-funded, established parties over independent candidates.
Last held in 2013 when supporters of then-prime minister Nouri al-Maliki emerged victorious, the next provincial council elections were set to be held in 2018 but were postponed, later to be dissolved as per the demands of protesters.
The elections will take place across federal Iraq and exclude the provinces of the Kurdistan Region.
