Popular religious leader Muqtada al Sadr was furious when he decided to boycott the upcoming Iraqi elections. In a televised speech, Al Sadr warned Iraqis and warned them of the possibility of a fate similar to that of Afghanistan and Syria. Immediately after his speech, all the politicians of his coalition announced the withdrawal from the next election.
Today Al Sadr controls the largest block of the Iraqi parliament, with 54 deputies out of a total of 325 seats. Just a few weeks ago, his followers expected to win 100 seats in the next parliament: with such numbers the coalition would have had the opportunity to shape the future government. The next round of elections, scheduled for October 10, will be the fifth since 2003. But the main parties, like the Sadrist one, behave very nervously and five other coalitions have announced a boycott of the elections.
An opportunity not to be missed
Some parties behind the scenes have attempted to postpone the consultation until April 2022. An expanded political meeting is expected “shortly” in Baghdad, and should involve party leaders along with Prime Minister Mustafa al Kadhimi, with the aim of deciding whether to hold the elections in any case on the established date or to postpone them, to give more time to the mediation attempts underway with the forces promoting the boycott and to convince them to get back into the race.
The UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Iraq, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, was more optimistic about the election. In a speech to the Security Council on 25 August he declared that the elections are “of great importance for the future of Iraq, and boycotting them is not an effective strategy”.
Earlier this week, the Democratic Party of Kurdistan (PDK) and the Da’wa party of former Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki in a joint statement called for voting to take place according to the established agenda.
Salem Yasser, 34, is an independent candidate who has decided to boycott the elections and describes the situation to me this way: “It’s useless. Three forces will influence the upcoming elections: the threat of Shiite militias in the south and Baghdad, the flow of money in the western Sunni regions and electoral fraud in Iraqi Kurdistan. Even with a vast boycott, the usual dominant parties will recycle for the fifth time ”.
(Translation by Francesco De Lellis)
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