Parliament approves election law amendments despite objections
Adoption of modified Sainte Lague system has led to protesters burning tyres and blocking roads
Iraq’s parliament approved amendments to the election law in a chaotic session yesterday, fuelling protests across the country.
MPs were forced to adopt a new election law after pro-reform October protests swept Iraq in late 2019.
Back then, there were many electoral districts in each province, with the winner being the party with the highest number of votes.
That move gave new independent parties – many of which were supported by protesters – a stronger chance of winning seats in the 2021 elections.
The new amendments return the law to the modified Sainte Lague system introduced in 2014, which uses a complicated formula to apportion seats and tends to favour established parties.
Independent parliamentarians walked out from the session, which started late on Sunday, in a bid to delay it, but the legislative body secured the quorum it needed.
In a bid to block the voting, the independents entered the hall, chanting against the amendments and demanding to end the session.
“No, no to Sainte Lague,” they shouted inside the hall, some of them hitting tables with their hands, others whistling.
At one point, Speaker Mohammed Al Halbousi lost his temper when MPs refused to leave, asking security to move them away and threatening them with suspension.
“We are being pushed by the guards,” Amer Ismael said while filming with his phone. “This is a humiliation to us.” The sessions lasted until dawn yesterday, when the new law was approved.
Prominent activist party the Imtidad Movement, which emerged from October 2019 protests, denounced the “flagrant aggression against the representatives of the people” and described it as a “a challenge to the peoples’ will”.
“The assault against the lawmakers by the security forces and threatening them with suspension by the parliament Speaker is a dangerous precedent that contradicts the principles of democracy and ethical values,” the party said.
A lawsuit will be filed at the federal supreme court to challenge the outcomes of the session, it said.
Protesters in some southern provinces burnt tyres to block roads and vowed there would be more demonstrations.
“We will have another say tomorrow,” activist Dhirghan Majid told a gathering of protesters in the southern city of Nasiriyah. “This is just a beginning.”
Since 2003, Iraq has held five parliamentary elections, all with different systems for allocating seats.
The latest was in October 2021, when the powerful Sadrist Movement, endorsed by Shiite cleric Moqtada Al Sadr, emerged as the clear winner with 73 seats.
But months later, the process of forming the government ground to a halt.
Mr Al Sadr ordered his followers to resign from parliament and withdraw from the political process.
He sought to form a majority government and his absence from the legislative body and political process has deepened the rift between him and his Shiite rivals.
The country is also planning to hold provincial council elections on November 6.
In a related development, the semi-autonomous Kurdish Regional
Government said that the region would be holding elections for its parliament on November 18, after a delay of one year.
A political dispute between the region’s most powerful party, the Kurdistan Democractic Party, and a coalition led by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, encompassing smaller opposition parties, had delayed the vote.
Earlier this month, the parties agreed on an amended election law that would divide the region into four constituencies, increase the quota for female MPs and require co-ordination with the federal ministry of planning to implement the law.
Dilshad Shahab, a representative of the region’s presidency, called on “relevant authorities to be ready to conduct the necessary tasks with support and co-operation from the Independent High Elections Commission for implementing this decision”.