Early results show record low turnout in Iraqi election
The 41% is down on the 44% turnout figure for the 2018 poll, figures reveal.
Preliminary results show that the turnout on Sunday’s election in Iraq was just 41% – a record low, down from 44% in the 2018 poll.
The results from the Iraqi election committee signal widespread dissatisfaction and distrust in this weekend’s vote for a new parliament.
The election was held months ahead of schedule as a concession to a youth-led popular uprising against corruption and mismanagement in the country.
Tens of thousands of people protested in late 2019 and early 2020, and were met by security forces firing live ammunition and tear gas. More than 600 were killed and thousands injured within just a few months.
Although authorities gave in and called the early elections, the death toll and the heavy-handed crackdown – as well as a string of targeted assassinations – prompted many protesters to later call for a boycott of the vote.
The election was the sixth held since the fall of Saddam Hussein after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Many were sceptical that independent candidates from the protest movement stood a chance against well-entrenched parties and politicians, many of them backed by powerful armed militias.
Many said the election would only bring back the same faces and parties responsible for the corruption and mismanagement that has plagued Iraq for decades. The problems have left the country with crumbling infrastructure, growing poverty and rising unemployment rates.
Groups drawn from Iraq’s majority Shia Muslim factions are expected to come out on top, with a tight race expected between the country’s influential Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, and the Fatah Alliance, led by paramilitary leader Hadi al-Ameri.
It includes some of the most hard-line Iranian-backed factions, such as the Asaib Ahl al-Haq militia.
Mr al-Sadr is also close to Iran, but publicly rejects its political influence.
That will require a lengthy process involving backroom negotiations to select a consensus prime minister and agree on a new coalition government.
Iraq’s current prime minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, has played a key role as a mediator in the region’s crises, particularly between regional rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Many in the region and beyond will be watching to see if he will secure a second term.
The new parliament will also elect Iraq’s next president.