Cleric who fought US takes surprise lead in Iraq elections
IRAQ - An Iraqi nationalist cleric who led two uprisings against US troops has taken a surprise lead in parliamentary elections, fending off Iran-backed rivals and the country’s incumbent prime minister, the electoral commission has said.
With 95% of the votes counted in 10 of Iraq’s 18 provinces, Moqtadr al-Sadr, a rare enemy of both the US and Iran, is ahead with Tehran-backed Shia militia chief Hadi al-Amiri’s bloc in second place and the prime minister, Haider alAbadi, trailing in third. The preliminary results are a severe setback for Abadi, who had entered the election campaign as the frontrunner. Sadr has a zealous following among the young, poor and dispossessed but had been sidelined by influential Iranian-backed figures. He will not become prime minister as he did not run in the election but his apparent victory puts him in a position to pick someone for the job. Winning the largest number of seats does not automatically guarantee that, however. The other winning blocs would have to agree on the nomination. Sadr and Amiri both came in first in four of the 10 provinces where votes were counted, but the cleric’s bloc won significantly more votes in the capital, Baghdad, which has the highest number of seats. Security and commission sources had earlier said Abadi was leading in the election, which was held on Saturday and is the first since the defeat of Islamic State in the country.
Turnout was 44.52%, the Independent High Electoral Commission said, significantly lower than in previous elections. The commission did not announce how many seats each bloc had gained and said it would do so after announcing the results from the remaining provinces. A document provided to Reuters by a candidate in Baghdad that was also circulating among journalists and analysts showed results from all 18 provinces. Reuters calculations based on the document showed Sadr had won the nationwide popular vote with more than 1.3m votes and gained 54 of parliament’s 329 seats. He was followed by Amiri with more than 1.2m votes, translating into 47 seats, and Abadi with more than 1m votes and 42 seats. Sadr is one of the few Shia leaders to have distanced himself from Iran and Tehran has publicly stated it would not allow his bloc to govern. He portrays himself as an Iraqi nationalist and last year met Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, who is staunchly opposed to Iran. (The Guardian)