1/3 Of Iraqi Voters Excluded From 2023 Elections Largely Due To Sectarian Cleansing

(Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)

Al Mada reported that up to one-third of registered voters won’t be able to take part in Iraq’s December 2023 elections. That’s because the Election Commission refused to update its voter data. Since the Commission is controlled by the ruling parties this was likely done to reduce the number of ballots cast in the hopes that would ensure their victory.

 

The main cause of so many people not being eligible is the Sunni cleansing of much of central Iraq during the war versus the Islamic State. The paper noted that 8 million people fled their homes during the conflict and have not been able to return. This includes places like Suleimen Beq and Baiji in Salahaddin and Hawija in southern Kirkuk. The entire district of Jurf al-Sakhr in northeast Babil was emptied of people. During the war Hashd units along with the Peshmerga forced out thousands of people blaming them for the Islamic State and did not allow them to go back. Al Mada said there were 10 empty to almost empty cities along with 200 villages.

 

This was a strategic decision by some Iraqi parties. Journalist Ghaith Abdul-Ahad for instance interviewed Badr head Hadi Amiri. His goal was to separate Sunnis from Shiites. This was to be achieved by building hatred between the two communities so they could no longer live together and thus justify the cleansing of the latter. Amiri was quoted as saying:

 

Before separating the two communities, we need wars and demographic cleansing. We need sectarian stories to agitate the people, stories and mythologies and tragedies of how the Shiite were forced to leave their lands, of how the Sunnis were killed. You need to build enough hatred until you and I can’t live together any more – then the divisions become fact.

 

There is also the Sinjar district where 80% of the population has not returned because there is unexploded ordinance and little to no rebuilding.

 

SOURCES

 

Abdul-Ahad, Ghaith, A Stranger in Your Own City, Travels in the Middle East’s Long War, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2023

 

Al Mada, “About 8 million Iraqis will not participate in the elections, most notably residents of abandoned cities,” 10/4/23