Iraqi political parties call for postponing provincial elections as low voter turnouts overshadow political scene   

Several Iraqi political parties have asked for postponing the upcoming provincial elections late this year as other parties have announced boycotting the electoral process due to "foreign interference and political money" by the Iran-backed ruling parties. 

Iraq is set to hold provincial elections on 18 December across 15 provinces, excluding four provinces in the northern Kurdish region. The provincial councils are tasked with providing public services to locals. However, they have often been accused of corruption.

 Twenty-five million persons, out of a population of 45 million, can vote in the elections; however, most Iraqis showed a cold shoulder to renewing their biometrics to be eligible to participate in the polls, as most locals feel hopeless that elections change anything.

On Tuesday, 22 August, the Independents Alliance, which includes several current lawmakers, political parties and activists, called on adjourning the elections until setting the stage for a "true competition" among the traditional ruling parties and the emerging political parties. 

"The elections fever has occupied several political forces that try to control the provincial elections after they occupied the Iraqi parliament when, according to recent surveys by Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), the number of candidates and voters have greatly shrunken," reads a statement by the alliance. 

The Shiite framework renews its affirmation and support for the efforts of Al-Sudani's government to make the local elections file and the mechanisms for their implementation a success.#Iraq pic.twitter.com/8whqtdV7ik

— Alahad TV-EN (@ahad_en) August 21, 2023

The last provincial elections held in Iraq was on 20 April 2013, in which Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq's former prime minister, won the majority vote. In the Iraqi Kurdistan region, elections have not been held since 2014.

On 28 October 2019, the Iraqi parliament voted to dissolve the provincial councils, a vital demand of the 2019 anti-corruption protests.

The Iraqi National Accord, led by former Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and Imtidad Movement, a party that emerged from the 2019 protests, announced they would not participate in the elections on Monday. 

"The provincial council is an extra circle in the state's structure, and they are a gate for exploiting the people's resources," the Iraqi National Accord said in a statement, clarifying, "We and our allies have decided to boycott the elections because the conditions of corruption and foreign hegemony still prevail in addition to political money that is a key factor in the electoral process and fake democracy." 

The Imtidad Movement has indicated that their decision to boycott the elections is due to the delay in holding their first annual conference to elect a new leader. 

On the other hand, in a statement on Tuesday, the Coordination Framework (CF), an umbrella ruling coalition from the Iran-backed Shia parties and forces, emphasised holding the provincial elections on its scheduled date.

"I think the provincial elections will be postponed to the new year for some reasons," Abdul Ghani Ghasban, editor-in-chief of a weekly Iraqi newspaper Sada al-Taghir [The Voice of Change] and a political analyst, told The New Arab. "First, the electoral commission's mandate will expire by the end of this year; second, the Sadrist Movement continues to boycott the political process; it previously said the boycott is only for one year."

Ghasban also indicated that crucial factions within the CF want the elections delayed because many Iraqi voters have announced boycotting the vote.

Moreover, he added that the current political parties are concerned with emerging new parties and political entities. "I think public pressure by several means will be a vital reason for adjourning the elections." 

Aso Faraidun, a lawmaker in the Iraqi parliament from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) bloc, told TNA that all the indications assert holding the elections on time. 

PUK is a ruling party in both Iraq and the Kurdistan region. It runs two ministries in Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani's cabinet. 

"The powerful sides and the main political coalitions benefit from the current condition. The Sadrist Movement will boycott Iraq's politics, waiting for the consequences of the upcoming events; thus, postponing the elections is not an option," Faraidun said.
 For the first time since 2005, the elections will also be held in Kirkuk's multi-ethnic and oil-rich province, in a constitutionally disputed area between the Kurdistan region and the federal government in Baghdad.

After more than one year of political stalemate, the Iraqi parliament on 28 October 2022 approved a new consensus government led by PM Sudani, who has pledged to hold early general elections "within a year", fight corruption, build a strong economy, and eradicate poverty and unemployment.

Iraq held an early election on 10 October 2021, in which al-Sadr won a majority with 73 seats in the election and vowed to form a "national majority" government with several Sunni and Kurdish blocs, signalling disagreements with other pro-Iran Shia blocs.

Failing to fulfil his promise to supporters, Sadr ordered lawmakers from his bloc to resign, which all of his MPs did on 12 June. The Coordination Framework replaced Sadr's MPs with their own, becoming the biggest bloc in the Iraqi parliament.