40 days after the end of the Iraqi elections on 10 October, the results are still the subject of bitter conflict.
After having sorted and counted the votes again, the electoral commission declared the final result, which deviates from the previous one by only five seats. Winners remain winners, and losers remain losers. However, the losers, mostly militia-dependent parties, are still mobilizing their followers in street demonstrations surrounding the green zone where the government is based, a threat designed to hinder the formation of a new government and parliament. Immediately after the release of the election commission report, clashes broke out between the demonstrators and the security forces of the green zone, where 12 people died and were injured.
The main winner, the Sadrist movement, kept its seats even after the recount (73 out of the total of 329 parliamentary deputies). But the opposition is calling for the results of these elections to be canceled and a new consultation to be announced in the short term, even knowing that it is impossible after the national and international bodies have approved the legitimate and peaceful elections in October. “It is a show of force to force the winners to the fact that here it is not a question of who won or who lost, and that they are important figures in determining the next government,” explains scholar Aqeel Abbas.
On 2 December a meeting was held without exchanging kisses or handshakes between the winning and losing teams, to try to reduce the gap between the two. If they reach a compromise we will go back to the starting point: a government of the muhassasa (the system of division by confessional shares) which will involve all parties, winning and losing. But the victor Muqtada al Sadr remains faithful to his decision to form a majority government, and immediately after the meeting declared with a tweet: “A government neither Western nor Eastern, but a majority government”.
(Translation by Francesco De Lellis)
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