Ballots open in Iraq for the election of the new parliament that many hope will lead to much-needed reforms, after decades of conflict and mismanagement. The vote was brought forward by six months after the clashes in the capital Baghdad and the southern provinces at the end of 2019. The polls opened in a context of tight security measures. More than 250,000 security officers across the country keep watch over the vote, but for the first time in decades, no curfews have been imposed.
The novelty of these elections is the use of biometric ballot papers which should avoid multiple voting and fraud, a practice that has been very present in past elections. To guarantee the “integrity” of the vote, there will also be numerous electoral observers, local but also international (many from the UN and sent by the EU).
The chances of remaining in power for the prime minister, Mustafa al-Kadhemi, are unclear. To elect the 329 members of the Iraqi parliament, a new system of single-member constituencies was established which, on paper, should favor independent candidates, in a country where political representation often follows religious, ethnic and sectarian lines of belonging. However, many activists linked to the protest movement have called for deserting the polls. Analysts therefore believe that traditional parties should be able to maintain their grip on a country where a third of the population lives in poverty despite abundant hydrocarbon resources.
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