Complete 2013 Iraq Provincial Elections Results

Iraq’s provincial elections are a bit of a paradox. First, there have been three successful transfers of powers since 2005 when Iraq regained its sovereignty, which is a positive step for the country’s developing democracy. However, Iraq’s governorate councils have only limited power. They rely upon the central government for their budgets and services, and have to go through the various ministries and agencies to get anything done such as development plans. This creates a never-ending stream of complaints from the periphery about the center. In the last several years, these problems have also led to protests over the inability of Baghdad to provide things such as electricity and other services. In June 2013, parliament amended the 2008 Provincial Powers Law, which if implemented would dramatically decentralize power to the local governments. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki didn’t pay attention to the original law, and its unlikely that his centralizing tendencies will allow him to follow through on the new one. The ministries share the premier’s opinion as well. For instance, the Municipalities and Public Works Ministry is already claiming that the councils have no decision-making powers over development projects as the legislation provides. That means that while there has been a tremendous amount of political capital expended by Iraq’s elites to form the new governorate authorities they are really only negotiating over positions, which have limited influence, and are probably much more important to the parties to dole out patronage. Many analysts have also pointed out that the 2013 vote could be a harbinger for the 2014 parliamentary elections, but that may not play out. The 2009 provincial balloting for example was all about local issues like the economy and services, but that did not really carry over into 2010. That year Maliki’s State of Law and the Iraqi National Movement started off pushing nationalist issues, but then soon devolved into whether candidates should be banned for their alleged ties to the Baath Party. More importantly Maliki's sweeping victory in 2009 only translated into a second place finish in 2010. Next year’s vote is a long ways away, and anything could happen between then and now, so the trends that evolved during the 2013 balloting may not apply.

As for the actual results, 2013 was a setback for Maliki’s State of Law. The list was much larger this year including the Fadhila Party, the Badr Organization, and Ibrahim al-Jaafari’s National Reform Party. In 2009, State of Law had a sweeping victory in southern Iraq and Baghdad winning 126 seats, playing upon the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq’s (ISCI) failure at developing those provinces. Fadhila won 5, and Jaafari’s National Reform Party pulled in 23. All together that was 154 seats, and that did not include what Badr won when it was part of ISCI. In comparison, in 2013 the expanded State of Law only won 109 seats, a loss of at least 45 seats. Like the Supreme Council beforehand, Maliki’s list suffered the fate of being the incumbents, and the inability to develop the provinces they ruled. ISCI’s Citizen’s Alliance and the Sadrists’ Liberal Coalition were the beneficiaries going from 55 to 61 seats and 41 to 47 seats respectively. The Sunni vote was similarly divided with Speaker Osama Nujafi’s Mutahidun coming out with the most seats, 30, compared to his rivals, Deputy Premier Saleh al-Mutlaq’s Arab Iraqiya, at 10 seats, and Iyad Allawi’s Iraqiya, 16 seats. All together, those lists lost over 40 seats however as many voters decided to throw in their lot with smaller parties. That shows continued lack of leadership in the Sunni community, and the inability of both those aligned with the protest movement, Mutahidun, and those willing to work with the prime minister, Mutlaq, gaining much traction with the public. The Kurdish parties also saw a decline going from 20 seats in 2009 to 15 in 2013. They seemed to have suffered from voter dissatisfaction as well. When it came to new ruling coalitions, Anbar, Babil, Baghdad, Basra, Muthanna, and Wasit all switched hands with State of Law losing control of three of those, most importantly the capital Baghdad and the economic capital Basra, but also gaining Babil and Muthanna. The other eight governorates had the same parties holding onto the governorships. Overall, State of Law could falter in 2014 as well. Being the incumbent might be only one of their problems however. Today, Premier Maliki is also being blamed for the deteriorating security situation, which was not really an issue in this year’s election. Again, only so much can be discerned about Iraq’s future from this year’s vote as the country is still in a very fluid situation where things are always changing in unexpected ways.

Total Seats By List 2013

List	Total Seats	Leader
State of Law	109	PM Maliki
Citizen’s Alliance	61	Ammar Hakim
Liberal Coalition	47	Moqtada al-Sadr
Mutahidun	30	Speaker Nujafi
Iraqiya	16	Iyad Allawi
Brotherhood and Coexistence	15	KDP-PUK
Iraqiya Babil/Diyala	11	Speaker Nujafi/Dep PM Mutlaq
Arab Iraqiya	10	Dep PM Mutlaq
Loyalty to Najaf	9	Adnan Abdul Khudayr Zurfi
Equitable State Movement	8	Habib Nour Mahdi Nehme
Alliance of Iraqi People	7	Salahaddin Gov. Ahmed Abdullah
Dawa-Internal Organization	7	Hashem Musawi
Iraq Independent Professionals Group	7	Hamid Ahmed Aboud Radi
National Partnership Gathering	6	Mohammed Fadel Obeid Omran
Abirun	5	Anbar Gov. Fahadawi
Dignity Alliance of Iraq	5
Alliance of Independent People of Diwaniya	4
Loyalty to Ninewa	4	Ghanim Baso/Dep PM Mutlaq
Anbar Patriotic Alliance	3
Constitution and Justice	3
Hope for Mesopotamia	3
Iraq’s Benevolence and Generosity List	3	Dr. Rushdi Said
Al Liwa	3	Yousef Majid al-Habboubi
National Independent Elite Movement	3
Solidarity With Iraq	3
Unified Ninewa	3
Babil Civil Alliance/Communists	2
Basra Independent Coalition	2
Citizenship State Bloc	2
Fayli Kurds Brotherhood List	2
Gathering of Muthanna	2
Iraq National Alliance	2
Iraqi Justice and Democracy Alliance	2
Just State	2
Loyal Hands’ Gathering	2
Muthanna Alliance for Change & Reconstruction	2
National Moderation Front	2
National White Bloc	2
Popular Will Project	2
Salahaddin Unified Coalition	2
State of Social Justice	2
Alternative Movement	1
Al Amin Coalition	1
Amiroun Alliance	1
Assyrian and Chaldean Assembly	1
Baghdad Turkmen List	1
Basra’s Civil Alliance	1
Chaldean Syriac Assyrian Gathering	1
Civil Democratic Alliance in Wasit	1
Civil Democrats	1
Determined to Build	1
Diyala’s New Coalition	1
Diwaniya Civil Alliance	1
Free Iraqi Coalition	1
Free Shabak	1
Gathering of Justice and Unity	1
Integrity and Efficiency	1
Iraq’s Advocates for State Support	1
Iraq’s Affluents	1
Iraq’s National Coalition	1
Iraqi Masses Gathering	1
Loyalty to Iraq Coalition	1
Najaf Province’s Change Coalition	1
National Flag Gathering	1
Ninewa Patriotic Alliance	1
Ninewa’s Bravery Coalition	1
Oum Rabih Ninewa Tribes	1
Raed Jabbar Salah	1
Renaissance and Building Gathering	1
Salahaddin Turkmen’s List	1
Valiants of Iraq	1
Will of Iraq Movement	1
Yazidi Movement for Reform and Progress	1
Total	447

Comparison of Governors By Party 2009 vs. 2013

Province	2009	2013
Anbar	Awakening of Iraq	Mutahidun
Babil	Liberal Coalition/Sadr	State of Law
Baghdad	State of Law	Liberal Coalition/Sadr
Basra	State of Law	Citizen’s Alliance/ISCI
Dhi Qar	State of Law	State of Law
Diyala	Accordance Front	Iraqiya Diyala/ Accordance Front
Karbala	State of Law	State of Law
Maysan	Liberal Coalition/Sadr	Liberal Coalition/Sadr
Muthanna	Citizen’s Alliance	State of Law
Najaf	Loyalty to Najaf	Loyalty to Najaf
Ninewa	Al Hadbaa	Al-Hadbaa/Mutahidun
Qadisiyah	State of Law	State of Law
Salahaddin	Independent	Independent
Wasit	State of Law	Citizen’s Alliance/ISCI

Seat Comparison By Party 2005 vs. 2009 vs. 2013 Across 14 Provinces (Excluding Tamim & KRG)

Party	2005	2009	2013	Difference 2009 vs 2013
Dawa/State of Law	25	126	109 (Plus Badr)	-45+
Fadhila	49	5	State of Law
Islamic Dawa – Iraq	17	0	State of Law
National Reform Party/Jaafari	-	23	State of Law
Coalition of Islamic & National Forces in Diyala (Dawa & ISCI)	24	-	-
ISCI	163	55	61 (Minus Badr)	+6
Sadrists	23	41	47	+6
Iraqi Islamic Party/Iraqi Accordance Front	45	32	Mutahidun
Al-Hadbaa/Mutahidun	-	19	30	-21
Iraqi National List/Iraqiya	18	26	16	-10
Iraqi National Project/Mutlaq & National Movement for Development and Reform/Karbuli	-	22	10	-12
Kurds	46	20	15	-5

Election Results By Province 2013

Anbar

Party	Total Votes	Seats
Mutahidun	115,605	8
Abirun	62,581	5
Arab Iraqiya	57,332	4
Iraqiya	39,500	3
Anbar Patriotic Alliance	35,214	3
Iraqi National Alliance	32,718	2
Popular Will Project	25,210	2
Iraq’s Affluents	10,785	1
Amiroun Alliance	10.785	1
Valiants of Iraq	8,932	1
Other Parties	17,457
Total	414,554	30
Mutahidun	Governor
Arab Iraqiya	Head of Council

Babil

Party	Total Votes	Seats
State of Law	142,568	8
Citizen’s Alliance	115,188	7
Iraq Independent Professionals Group	69,087	4
Liberal Coalition	51,869	4
Babil Civil Alliance/Communists	30,578	2
Iraqiya	20.755	1
Iraq’s National Coalition	20,755	1
Dawa Internal Organization	19,527	1
National Partnership Gathering	18,565	1
Al Amin Coalition	16,865	1
Iraqiya Babil	12.754	1
Other Parties	26,688
Total	548,671	31
State of Law	Governor
Iraq Independent Professionals Group	Head of Council

Baghdad

Party	Total Votes	Seats
State of Law	569,178	20
Mutahidun	183,716	7
Citizen’s Alliance	163,022	6
Liberal Coalition	137,808	4
Iraqiya	80,066	3
National Independent Elite Movement	78,429	3
Arab Iraqiya	70,644	3
Citizenship State Bloc	48,605	2
National Partnership Gathering	31,889	1
Dawa Internal Organization	24,339	1
Iraqi Justice and Democracy Alliance	23,388	1
Free Iraqi Coalition	15,957	1
Iraq’s Benevolence and Generosity List	15,162	1
Fayli Kurds Brotherhood List	8,675	1
Baghdad Turkmen List	1,947	1
Chaldean Syriac Assyrian Gathering Coalition	1,513	1
Raed Jabbar Salah	781	1
Other Parties	112,580
Total	1,567,699	58
Liberal Coalition	Governor
Mutahidun	Head of Council

Basra

Party	Total Votes	Seats
State of Law	292,658	16
Citizen’s Alliance	121,875	6
Liberal Coalition	58,312	3
Basra Independent Coalition	29,384	2
Gathering of Justice and Unity	24,513	1
Basra’s Civil Alliance	17,541	1
Alternative Movement	15,643	1
Dawa Internal Organization	15,493	1
Will of Iraq Movement	13,940	1
Iraqiya	13,319	1
Mutahidun	10,386	1
Other Parties	34,873
Total	647,937	35
Citizen’s Alliance	Governor
State of Law	Head of Council

Dhi Qar

Party	Total Votes	Seats
State of Law	176,861	10
Citizen’s Alliance	122,088	7
Liberal Coalition	81,338	5
Solidarity With Iraq	50,363	3
Equitable State Movement	43,369	3
National Partnership Gathering	26,670	2
Civil Democrats	17,906	1
Total		31
State of Law	Governor
State of Law	Head of council

Diyala

Party	Total Votes	Seats
Diyala’s National Coalition	170,292	12 (State of Law 10, Liberal Coalition 2)
Iraqiya Diyala	149,535	10
Brotherhood and Coexistence List	49,415	3
Iraqiya	27,670	2
Determined to Build	17,935	1
Diyala’s New Coalition	13,980	1
Total		29
Iraqiya Diyala	Governor
Liberal Coalition	Head of Council

Karbala

Party	Total Votes	Seats
State of Law	84,447	7
Liberal Coalition	43,945	4
Al Liwa	33,614	3
Citizen’s Alliance	33,362	3
Hope for Mesopotamia	32,527	3
Equitable State Movement	32,454	3
National Moderation Front	18,501	2
Iraq’s Advocates for State Support	13,102	1
Iraqi Justice and Democracy Alliance	8,559	1
Total		27
State of Law	Governor
State of Law	Head of Council

Maysan

Party	Total Votes	Seats
Liberal Coalition	89,906	9
State of Law	77,917	8
Citizen’s Alliance	63,060	6
Integrity and Efficiency	11,605	1
National Partnership Gathering	10.771	1
National Flag Gathering	9,814	1
Dawa Internal Organization	5,615	1
Others	3,665	-
Total	272,353	27
Liberal Coalition	Governor
State of Law	Head of Council

Muthanna

Party	Total Votes	Seats
State of Law	76,777	9
Citizen’s Alliance	67,203	7
Liberal Coalition	31,290	3
Iraq Independent Professionals Group	27,065	3
Gathering of Muthanna	24,931	2
Muthanna Alliance for Change & Reconstruction	17,561	2
Others	6,029
Total	250,856	26
State of Law	Governor
Citizen’s Alliance	Head of Council

Najaf

Party	Total Votes	Seats
Loyalty to Najaf	118,310	9
Citizens’ Alliance	82,020	6
State of Law	76,519	5
Liberal Coalition	45,167	3
Just State	25,889	2
Najaf Province’s Change Coalition	14,464	1
National Partnership Gathering	14,314	1
Renaissance and Building Gathering	8,521	1
Dawa Internal Organization	7,571	1
Others	10,546	-
Total		29
Loyalty to Najaf	Governor
State of Law	Head of Council

Ninewa

Party	Total Votes	Seats
Brotherhood and Coexistence	173,687	11 (KDP 8, PUK 3)
Mutahidun	129,556	8
Loyalty to Ninewa	66,517	4
Unified Ninewa	45,971	3
Constitution and Justice	39,126	3
Iraqiya	31,276	2
Ninewa’s Bravery Coalition	23,361	1
Ninewa Patriotic Alliance	22,734	1
Oum Rabih Ninewa Tribes	21,349	1
Free Shabak	12,689	1 (quota)
Yazidi Movement for Reform and Progress	10,397	1 (quota)
Iraqi Masses Gathering	8,633	1
Assyrian and Chaldean Assembly	8,635	1 (quota)
Iraq’s Benevolence and Generosity	8,076	1
Total	581,449	39
Mutahidun	Governor
Brotherhood and Coexistence	Head of Council

Qadisiyah

Party	Total Votes	Seats
State of Law	114,697	8
Citizen’s Alliance	66,691	5
Liberal Coalition	50,544	4
Alliance of Independent People of Diwaniya	49,831	4
National White Bloc	33,092	2
Dawa Internal Organization	29,517	2
Loyalty to Iraq Coalition	11,207	1
Diwaniya Civil Alliance	9,472	1
Equitable State Movement	8,141	1
Total		28
State of Law	Governor
Citizen’s Alliance	Head of Council

Salahaddin

Party	Total Votes	Seats
Alliance of Iraqi People	95,338	7
Mutahidun	79,705	5
Dignity Alliance of Iraq	66,549	5
Iraqiya	46,287	3
National Coalition in Salahaddin	39,447	3 (State of Law 1, Citizen’s Alliance 1, Liberal Coalition 1)
Arab Iraqiya	24,167	2
Salahaddin Unified Coalition	23,497	2
Brotherhood and Coexistence List	21,373	1
Salahaddin Turkmen’s List	18,395	1
Total		29
Alliance of Iraqi People	Governor
National Coalition in Salahaddin	Head of Council

Wasit

Party	Total Votes	Seats
State of Law	96,664	7
Citizen’s Alliance	86,403	7
Liberal Coalition	63,584	5
Loyal Hands’ Gathering	29,969	2
State of Social Justice	28,446	2
Iraq’s Benevolence and Generosity List	13,678	1
Iraqiya	13,055	1
Equitable State Movement	8,447	1
Civil Democratic Alliance in Wasit	8,420	1
Fayli Kurds Brotherhood List	2,212	1
Total		28
Citizen’s Coalition	Governor
Liberal Coalition	Head of council

SOURCES

Abbas, Mushreq, “Iraqi Provincial Law Renews Debate Over Centralization,” Al-Monitor, 7/8/13

Abdullah, Ali, “Citizen coalition and the Liberals on the mechanism of choosing the head of the provincial council in Najaf,” Buratha News, 6/13/13

AIN, “Breaking news…Diyala National Alliance tops elections results in Diyala,” 5/4/13

- “Breaking News…Iraqiya Masses 1^st in Salah il-Din,” 5/4/13

- “IHEC announces results of Anbar PC elections,” 6/25/13

- “Nasiri nominated as Thi-Qar Governor, Sahlani as its Chairman,” 6/16/13

- “SLC, Citizen, Ahrar forefront electoral slates in Basra,” 5/4/13

- “SLC, Citizen Coalition top results of Babel PC slates,” 5/4/13

- “SLC tops electoral slates in Diwaniya,” 5/4/13

- “Thiyab nominated as new Anbar Governor, Halbousi as its PC Chairman,” 7/31/13

- “Urgent…Brotherhood & Coexistence (Ta’akhi) Slate tops results of Nineveh local elections,” 6/26/13

- “Urgent…Muthana PC nominates Mayali as Muthana Governor, Yasiri as its Chairman,” 6/17/13

- “URGENT…SLC wins 7 seats among 27 in Karbala,” 5/4/13

- “Urgent….Timimi designated as Baghdad Governor, Adhadh as Baghdad PC chairman,” 6/15/13

Alsumaria, “Alliance Kurdish brotherhood and coexistence first and second united Nineveh elections,” 6/26/13

- “Raad Hamza capacity as Chairman of the Board of Babylon and honest meaning conservative law,” 6/15/13

Buratha News, “Given the position of first deputy governor of Diyala province to the Kurdistan Alliance,” 6/19/13

- “The rule of law in Karbala loses one of its members because of the position of the Governor,” 6/18/13

Al-Mada, “Diwaniyah terminate the distribution of positions on file members,” 6/17/13

- “Interior inspector general governor of Karbala and Iraqi partnership take Diyala,” 6/20/13

- “Maliki wraps Sadr and Hakim alliance in Dhi Qar, Najaf .. and gets 5 committees of the Government of Wasit,” 6/15/13

- “Maliki’s bloc announces the formation of a coalition (the sons of Dhi Qar) to win the leadership of the provincial council and exclude the Liberals the Citizen’s Alliance,” 6/13/13

- “Maysan, Salahuddin keep on Lazem .. Samad assisted tribes to get a second term,” 6/8/13

- “Minister of Municipalities: No local governments have the right to make decisions on projects ministries articulated,” 7/9/13

- “The new governor of Wasit province offers promise I: activation of services and accounting firms lagging and genuine partnership,” 6/17/13

- “Uniters progressing in Anbar, according to 85% of the results and then Mutlaq and Allawi,” 6/22/13

National Iraqi News Agency, “Breaking News—Ethel al-Nujaifi keeps his position as governor of Nineveh,” 7/31/13

- “BREAKING NEWS Majid Nasrawi elected Governor of Basra,” 6/12/13

Radio Nawa, “Election Aqeel Turaihi conservative Karbala and Nassif Jassem president of council of State of Law,” 6/19/13

Shafaq News, “KDP wins 14 seats in Nineveh and Shafaq News publishes the winners’ names,” 6/22/13

- “KDP wins quota of Shabak and Yazidis in Nineveh,” 6/22/13

- “Kurds win 11 seats and 8 for Mutahedoun in Nineveh council,” 6/26/13

Sotaliraq, “Commission announces preliminary results of the elections of Nineveh and Anbar .. Uniters in the lead,” 6/22/13

Visser, Reidar, “As the Deadline for Forming Coalitions Expires, Maliki Creates Monster Sectarian Alliance for Iraq’s Local Elections in April 2013,” Iraq and Gulf Analysis, 12/21/12

- “Final Results of the Iraqi Provincial Elections 2013,” Iraq and Gulf Analysis, 5/4/13

- “The First Batch of New Iraqi Provincial Governments,” Iraq and Gulf Analysis, 6/17/13

Wikipedia, “Iraqi Governorate Elections 2013”