Alwaght- On Saturday, Iraq held first phase of its election for provincial councils in which security and military forces and refugees voted to elect their representatives. These elections are held for the first time in a decade.
On Friday, the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) said that over 1 million eligible voters from security and military forces and refugees will vote.
Emad Jameel, the press secretary of the IHEC told Iraqi news agency (INA) that the number of the eligible voters from the security forces is 1,002,393, and the number of the voting centers is 565 and the number of the polling stations is 2,367.
According to the commission, 48,260 people from the settlement camps vote along with the security forces and 120 polling stations receive their ballots.
The general voting is held today (Monday) and over 23 million Iraqis are eligible to vote. 296 political parties within 50 coalitions are vying for 275 provincial council seats. Of this number, 75 seats are for women and 10 for religious and ethnic minorities.
Earlier, in September, Juma al-Ghalai, the spokesperson of the Supreme Election Commission in Iraq, told Al-Sharq news website that “134 electoral lists, including 39 alliances, 29 parties, and 66 independent candidates, will participate in the elections.
The IHEC has confirmed that all technical and logistic preparations for the elections have been made and 5,900 candidates are to be voted for in 15 provinces.
The commission also said that over 1 million are hired as observers, election staffers, and media personnel to do the voting operation. Jameel said that this number of election staff is unprecedented.
The United Nations is also monitoring the election process with 110,000 cameras. 500 international observers plus 130,000 observers from participating parties are also monitoring the election.
Special security arrangements
The government has taken a series of special security measures for healthy elections. Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani in a letter to the security force thanked them for “securing the election at all of its stages”, adding: “We emphasize your freedom. By participating in the special vote in the provincial council elections, no one has the right to interfere in determining the choices or to dictate [choices] to you.”
Al-Sudani called on the people to form strong provincial councils with maximum participation in the elections and voiced his commitment to protect health of the election.
According to Iraqi media, the government had started intensive security measures since Thursday with massive presence of security forces.
General Qais al-Mohamadawi, the deputy commander of Joint Operations Command, in a press conference confirmed that a security plan was designed to secure the ‘special voting’ of security forces and refugees, as well as the general voting of Monday.
Ministry of Interior official spokesman Brigadier General Miqdad Miri said the security plan includes three stages: Preventive stage, field operations stage, and direct implementation stage. The security forces will prevent unauthorized protests, implement ban on carrying arms, and block use of phones and arms in the polling stations.
Major General Yahya Rasool, the official spokesman of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, in a press conference held that the commander-in-chief (PM) al-Sudani ordered preparing a secure environment for the election.
Election mechanism and powers of provincial councils after reforms
The provincial councils are 15 local government bodies, excluding the 3 provincial governments of the Kurdistan Region, and elect the governor and his two deputies in each province.
According to the ‘Law of Governorates Not Incorporated into a Region’, which was approved in 2008, the election cycle of Iraqi provincial councils must be repeated every 4 years, which means that the life of each provincial council representation period is 4 years.
According to the latest population census, from which the electoral roll is compiled, one seat is reserved for every 200,000 people, provided that the total number of members in each council does not exceed 35.
Also, there are other branches called district councils affiliated with governorship. The district council elections are held in the second stage, namely within 6 months after holding the governorship council elections.
According to the constitution of Iraq, the provincial councils have wide administrative and financial powers, including electing the governor and executive officials of the province and the heads of departments and the power to dismiss them, issuing local laws (provided that they do not conflict with federal laws), and approving construction projects based on the financial budget allocated to the province by the central government. These councils are the legislative and supervisory authorities in each province and are not under the control or supervision of any ministry or non-governmental organization.
The important issue in this provincial election is that it is held for the first time in a decade.
The first provincial council election was held in 2009 and included 15 of Iraq’s 18 provinces, and the last one was held in April 2013. Next election was supposed to be held in 2018, but was postponed following popular demonstrations and the subsequent political instability that followed them and led to short-living cabinets.
In October 28, 2019, the parliament voted to dissolve all provincial councils, but the decision was almost unanimously rejected by council members before it could be presented to the Supreme Court for a ruling in June 2021. The Supreme Court ruled that continuation of the provincial councils was a violation of the voting right of people and unconstitutional.
Finally, the provincial councils were dissolved in all regions in 2019 following the government reforms, and only governors remained in their posts, with the prime minister retaining the right to appoint or remove them.”
However, this did not close the challenge, and in early 2022, the Supreme Court ruled that the decision was “unconditional”, and that was something that returned the provincial councils to the Iraqi political life, and with revision of the law of the provincial council elections by the parliament, the current election schedule was set. These reforms changed each governorship from several divisions in previous election cycles to one division and constituency to provide wider opportunities for candidates to compete.
In this connection, the IHEC started in summer registration of parties willing to compete for seats. New political forces also registered to compete for seats.
Still, the most powerful parties and coalitions for the seats remain the traditional ones like the parties acting under the Shiite Coordination Framework (SCF), the two Kurdish parties of Kurdistan Democratic Party and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, and the Sunni alliances of Progress and Azem.
Intense election in the absence of Sadrist Movement
In the current period of provincial council elections, an important development is the absence of the Sadrist Movement led by Moqtada al-Sadr. After he announced his retirement from political life last year, al-Sadr asked his supporters to boycott the elections.
Responding to questions by his supporters about participating in the elections, the powerful cleric noted that one of the most important characteristics that distinguish Sadrist popular base is its unity, obedience, and loyalty.
He added that participation of the corrupt “upsets me and boycotting the elections makes me happy, angers the enemies, diminishes the international and local legitimacy of the election, and weakens the control of the corrupt.”
However, due to massive powers of the provincial councils, especially in appointment of provincial officials and the power to manage the provincial budget, a majority of the political parties are joining the race with maximum power and calling on their supporters to vote.
