Elections in Iraq

Iraq
This article is part of a series on the
politics and government of
Iraq
Constitution

Elections in Iraq gives information on election and election results in Iraq.

History

Under the Iraqi constitution of 1925, Iraq was a constitutional monarchy, with a bicameral legislature consisting of an elected House of Representatives and an appointed Senate. The lower house was elected every four years by manhood suffrage (women did not vote). The first Parliament met in 1925. Ten general elections were held before the overthrow of the monarchy in 1958. The electoral system, however, was manipulated by the King and his advisors, who were Sunni Muslims, to ensure that the Shi'a majority were prevented from taking power.

Between 1958 and 2003 Iraq was ruled by a series of military governments, all dominated by Iraqi Arabs, particularly after the emergence of the Ba'ath Party in the early 1960s. Under the regime of Saddam Hussein, who came to power in 1979, Kurds and Shi'a majority were persecuted. Saddam's rule was largely run by Sunni Arabs from Tikrit (a mainly Sunni area), his home region. On October 16, 2002, after a well-publicized show election, Iraqi officials declared that Saddam had been re-elected to another seven-year term as President by a 100% unanimous vote of all 11,445,638 eligible Iraqis, eclipsing the 99.96% received in 1995. Outside governments dismissed the vote as lacking credibility.

January 2005 Iraqi parliamentary election

The multinational force's 2003 invasion of Iraq overthrew Saddam's government and installed an interim administration.

An initial Iraqi attempt at holding local elections was canceled by Paul Bremer.[1]

This government held elections on January 30, 2005 to begin the process of writing a constitution. International groups and the formerly excluded factions claimed that the January 2005 elections were the first free elections in Iraq's history, with a fair representation of all groups. This is in stark contrast to previous elections. After the 16 October 2002 referendum on the extension of his role as President, Saddam Hussein claimed that %100 of the voters voted "yes" and that %100 of Iraqi's had voted (approximately 24,001,820 people). Opponents of the occupation, such as the various insurgent groups, claimed the elections were not free and fair, citing flaws in the process. The UN adviser to Iraq's election commission Craig Jenness said the complaints were not significant; "I don't see anything that would necessitate a rerun.... There were nearly 7,000 candidates standing in this election and only 275 seats, so you're always going to have winners and losers and it's normal that the losers won't always be happy about it."[2][3]

December 2005 Iraqi parliamentary election

2009: request for national elections

The issue arising was the interpretation of Article 56 of the constitution which states:

First: The electoral term of the Council of Representatives shall be four calendar years, starting with its first session and ending with the conclusion of the fourth year.

Second: The new Council of Representatives shall be elected forty-five days before the conclusion of the preceding electoral term. The previous election had been on 15 December 2005.

The opening session of the Council of Representatives had been 16 March 2006 (the swearing in session) and the first substantive session of the Council of Representatives was then held on 22 April 2006. The Court was of the opinion that the swearing in session on 16 March 2006 was the "first session" as required by Article 56(First). It therefore followed that the conclusion of the fourth year would be on 15 March 2010 and that the election should be 45 days prior to 15 March 2010, i.e., 30 January 2010. The court decided that the calendar year referred to was the 365-day Gregorian year (and not for example the 360-day Hijri year).

2010 Iraqi parliamentary election

 Summary of the 2010 election for Council of Representatives of Iraq
Alliances and parties Votes % Seats +/–
Iraqi National Movement (al-Iraqiya) 2,849,612 24.72% 91 Increase54
State of Law Coalition 2,792,083 24.22% 89 Increase64
National Iraqi Alliance 2,092,066 18.15% 70 Decrease35
Kurdistan Alliance 1,681,714 14.59% 43 Decrease10
Movement for Change (Gorran) 476,478 4.13% 8 Increase8
Unity Alliance of Iraq 306,647 2.66% 4 Increase4
Iraqi Accord Front (al-Tawafuq) 298,226 2.59% 6 Decrease38
Kurdistan Islamic Union 243,720 2.12% 4 Decrease1
Islamic Group of Kurdistan 152,530 1.32% 2 Increase1
Minorities 61,153 - 8 Increase6
Total (turnout 62.4 %) 11,526,412 100% 325 Increase50
Source: themajlis.org

2013 provincial councils (local government) elections

2013 elections statistics[4]

Four provinces are part of the semi-autonomous region Kurdistan with their Elections in September 2013, two provinces (Anbar, Nineveh) requested to postpone their elections due to security reasons.[4]

This is the sixth voting exercise by Iraqis in 10 years:

Including polling stations in prisons and hospitals.
100% of staff in this election were Iraqis

Basrah

In Basrah the numbers were as follows: Voter turnout: 42%[5]

Registered eligible voters: Approx. 1,600,000 [5]

Ballots cast: Approx. 650,000 [5]

Candidates: 656

Contested seats: 35 Council seats (1 seat reserved for Christian quota)

Political entities: 25 (party and alliance)

In the first elections since the withdrawal of U.S forces the Iraqi Independent Electoral Commission (IHEC) confirmed that 6,400,777 voters cast their votes.

Past elections

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Elections in Iraq.

References

  1. ↑
  2. ↑
  3. ↑
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "Iraq 2013 Elections Numbers & Turnout," Posted by H Al Researcher, especialview.wordpress.com (April 21, 2013).
  5. 1 2 3 http://newslinexpress.wordpress.com/2013/05/02/basrah-iraqs-oil-city-elections/


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