Protests Continue In Iraq Over Election Results

(Kurdistan 24)

Demonstrations continue across Iraq over the election results. Most of those are led by the Fatah List which had a very poor showing. The Election Commission on the other hand said that it accepted just a handful of complaints.

 

The Election Commission received over 1,000 protests about the results. The Commission is slowly going through them and has so far only accepted eight appeals. That will lead to manual recounts in Babil, Baghdad, Basra, Irbil, Kirkuk and Ninewa. This happens every time there is voting in Iraq. In 2018 for instance ballots were thrown out from over 1,000 voting stations across nine provinces plus from overseas countries and later the Commission heads were dismissed for how badly things had been handled.

 

The big difference this time is that there are demonstrations over the results and the threat of violence. Much of this is being done by Fatah which went from 48 seats in 2018 to just 17 in 2021. The list was made up of various parties each of which wanted to win seats. That meant they ran multiple candidates against each other in the same voting district and lost out as a result. 

 

They have been protesting in various provinces including outside the Green Zone in Baghdad. On October 23 they tried to break in but were stopped by the security forces. They may try again as they gave the Election Commission until October 25 to recount the ballots. This has created a lot of tension in the capital as Fatah is made up of armed Hashd factions like Badr and Asaib Ahl Al-Haq. Hopefully this will be resolved peacefully but clashes are always possible given the high tension and the unwillingness of Fatah to come face to face with its loss.

 

SOURCES

 

Al Aalem, “The deadline for the framework ends tomorrow. His supporters are preparing to storm the Green Zone and the current attributes their anger to the bitterness of loss,” 10/24/21

 

Dri, Karwan Faidhi, “Iraq electoral commission orders some manual recounts,” Rudaw, 10/23/21

 

Al Hurra, “Al-Fatah supporters are trying to storm Al-Khadra, and the US embassy is sounding alarms,” 10/24/21

- “The strategy fo the new law … How did the Sadrists overthrow the Al-Fatah Alliance in the elections?” 10/24/21

 

Al Masalah, “The Election Commission: The seven appeals will lead to a recount and manual sorting of the results,” 10/22/21

 

NINA, “Protesters In Front Of Green Zone Give The IHEC 72 Hours To Address Complaints And Appeals,” 10/23/21

 

Shakir, Layal, “Iraq electoral commission received more than 1,000 complaints,” 10/18/21