National Elections

Five big takeaways from the provisional results of Iraq's Oct. 10 national elections. As Iraqis wait for the final result, Iraq Oil Report spoke with voters and politicians all over the country, from Basra to Baghdad to Erbil. Even though the full count is not yet finalized — and could end up being challenged — the preliminary tally has already begun to shape the government formation period, and some clear trends have emerged.

1. Historically low turnout highlights widespread mistrust in the political system.
2. Voting appeared to go much more smoothly than in 2018, but Iraq's election authorities have created confusion in how they have announced the results, which is once again creating space for accusations of error and fraud.
3. Shia house reshuffled: Muqtada al-Sadr made big gains, while the Iran-leaning Fatah Alliance lost over half its Parliament seats.
4. Kurdistan's duopoly endures, and New Generation replaces Gorran as the region's reformist third party.
5. Several successful candidates emerged from the protest movement, overcoming overwhelming obstacles.

Read the full story on Iraq Oil Report.

Iraqi election authorities are expecting to finalize results within a week. The Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) is investigating 356 complaints, according to Rudaw, quoting Hassanein Laith, head of IHEC's complaints division.

The window for submitting an appeal of the election results closed on Thursday and all complaints will be resolved within seven days, after which the judiciary has 10 days to review the complaint and resolution, Ali Said Jassim, legal director of IHEC’s complaints department, told state media. “After the complaints are resolved, the final results will be announced,” he said.

Under the law, the final results can also be appealed, he added.

Once the results are ratified by the Supreme Court, a process of forming the government is set in motion, as dictated by the constitution. Within 15 days of the ratification of the results, the president calls on the parliament to meet, chaired by its eldest member, and elect a speaker and two deputies by an absolute majority. The parliament also elects a president by a two-thirds majority.

The president then tasks the largest bloc in the parliament with forming the government, naming a prime minister within 15 days of the election of the president. The prime minister-elect then has 30 days to name a cabinet.

The Tishreen movement has become a political force in southern Iraq. Writing for Middle East Eye, Suadad al-Salhy profiles Nissan Abdel-Redha al-Zayer, a 44-year-old teacher in Dhi Qar province who was just elected to Parliament with the protest-inspired Imtidad party.

One of the biggest challenges Imtidad faced, according to Zayer, was winning people’s support without offering them the usual incentives and promises offered by traditional political parties.

"Whenever we attended an electoral rally, people would ask us for money, gifts or services, and they could not believe that we were completely dependent on the simple donations that some youth were providing,” she told MEE.

"I and a group of youth who volunteered to run my electoral campaign, were laughing and joking about the situation whenever we were unable to secure small sums of money to buy water and juice for one of our rallies. The situation, despite its bitterness, was a great incentive for us to continue and insist on winning."

Despite the lack of resources, Zayer was comfortably elected in the fourth constituency, which covers the towns and villages of southern Dhi Qar, ranking tenth in the list of candidates who received the highest number of votes in Iraq, and first among women candidates, according to the Electoral Commission.

More National News

New York Times: Iraq says it arrested a leading Islamic State figure

Iraq says it has captured the Islamic State’s finance chief, a rare arrest of a major ISIS figure that could produce significant intelligence gains against the group as it struggles to re-emerge.

Iraqi security forces said in a statement on Monday that they had arrested Sami Jassem al-Ajuz “by a major action by our forces in the National Intelligence Service and a special operation outside our borders.”

They did not say when the arrest took place, or where. But a senior Iraqi intelligence official, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak with the media, said Mr. al-Ajuz had been captured across the border in Syria.

The Iraqi statement described Mr. al-Ajuz as the chief financial and economic official for the Islamic State. It said he was a top aide to the current head of the group and a former deputy to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the ISIS leader who was killed in a U.S. raid in 2019 in northwestern Syria.

Reuters: Climate change, pollution and dams threaten Iraq’s marsh Arabs

"The marshes are our life. If droughts persist, we will stop to exist, because our whole life depends on water and raising water buffaloes," said 37-year-old [Sabah Thamer] al-Baher.

Baher and his family are Marsh Arabs, the wetlands' indigenous population that was displaced in the 1990s when Saddam Hussein dammed and drained the marshes to flush out rebels hiding in the reeds.

After his overthrow in 2003, the marshes were partly reflooded and many Marsh Arabs returned, including Baher's family.

However, conditions have pushed the wetlands' fragile ecosystem off balance, endangering biodiversity and livelihoods, said Jassim al-Asadi, an environmentalist born in the marshes.

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