Iraqi politicians start poll campaign in earnest
baghdad — In the aftermath of a destructive three-year war to defeat the militant group Daesh, Iraqi politicians are promising citizens a better future, employing social media, online videos and traditional billboards. Eager to shape the country, they didn’t bother waiting for Saturday’s official campaign kick-off. For weeks, they’ve been chatting with shoppers at outdoor markets, shaking hands and greeting potential voters with cheek kisses.
May 12 marks Iraq’s fourth parliamentary elections since the 2003 US-led invasion that removed Saddam Hussein from power. According to the Independent Electoral Commission, nearly 7,000 candidates will vie for 329 seats, and while candidates have campaigned early in the past, this year some pols began pounding the pavement as much as a month ago.
Iraqi elections have generally been free since the US invasion, but politics have been dysfunctional because of the tremendously sectarian nature of the vote and of the major parties, such that the results are more like a census than a contest of ideas.
This time around Iraq’s Sunnis, hundreds of thousands of them internally displaced after the destruction of their towns during the war, have grown increasingly angry as they struggle, mostly without help from the government. Meanwhile, Iranian-backed militias, who played a key role in defeating Daesh and are allied with the Shialed Baghdad government, are poised to make significant electoral gains.
This fragmented political landscape is a reality despite hopes that after several years of catastrophic war against Daesh the vote might accomplish no less than correcting the entire course of Iraq’s future and setting it back on path to some sort of normalcy. “It is Iraq’s time,” says a billboard slogan with the picture of Hadi Al Amiri, head of the Conquest Alliance, a coalition of popular militias who fought Daesh along with government forces. The coalition is expected to play a major role in the election and formation of the next government given the wide support it enjoys throughout Iraq.