Boycott drags Iraqi voter turnout down under 45%

BAGHDAD — Since Iraq began holding free and fair elections in 2005, voting trends were traditionally looked at through the prism of the nation’s dominant religious sects and ethnicities: Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish.

But the day after Saturday’s national election, the conversation on Iraq’s airwaves, social media and streets has revolved around an unexpected new constituency: boycotters.

Less than 45 percent of Iraq’s 22 million eligible voters turned out for the parliamentary election, held five months after the Islamic State militant group’s threeyear occupation of major Iraqi cities was defeated in a costly and bloody war. The low turnout was at odds with predictions that voters would throng the polls in a harbinger of a new era in Iraqi politics.

The number reflects a steep decline in the rate of Iraqi voter participation, which was 62 percent in the 2014 and 2010 elections and 70 percent in 2005.

Iraq’s electoral commission says influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s alliance is the early front-runner in national elections, with official results in from just over half of the country’s provinces.

The announcement Sunday comes a day after polls closed. The results are from 10 of the country’s 19 provinces, including Baghdad and Basra.

An alliance of candidates with close ties to Iraq’s powerful Shiite paramilitary groups are in a close second while Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has performed poorly across majority Shiite provinces that should have been his base of support.

Many of those who stayed home said it was an act of protest, not a lack of interest. They cited displeasure with Iraq’s complicated election system, which rewards name recognition over platforms, and a lack of confidence that the same old faces that led the ballot lists would deliver on job opportunities and lasting security.

Others said they hoped their boycott would force a national reckoning over what they regard as a stagnation of Iraq’s political and social order in the years since dictator Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003.

“I participated in all the previous elections, yet there was no change. We demonstrated against the electoral system, but no one listened,” said Mustafa Sadoon, a Baghdad-based writer. “I didn’t find any other choice to express my rejection except to boycott.”

Iraq’s government celebrated the election, however, citing the absence of any terrorist attacks at the polling stations and any reports of widespread irregularities or fraud.

Officials administering the elections attributed the low turnout partly to increased security measures and confusion stemming from the first-time use of an electronic voting system.

Several voters in the city of Najaf said in interviews that they were turned away when the biometric voting machines couldn’t recognize their fingerprints.