Iraqi youth plan to boycott ‘rigged’ polls
NASIRIYAH: Iraq will hold early elections on Sunday as a concession to a youth-led protest movement, but in Nasiriyah, the city at the heart of the revolt, most young people won’t vote.
Ahead of the parliamentary polls, the mood in Nasiriyah and much of Iraq is sombre with little hope the election will bring much-needed change to the war-scarred country.
“Elections in Iraq are rigged,” said 21-year-old Anas, echoing a common sentiment among young adults in the impoverished southern city. “They are corrupted by arms and money, and I can’t be made to vote with a gun to my head.”
Anas, who declined to give his full name, is an economics graduate but, like 40% of Iraqi youths, he is unemployed.
In October 2019, anti-government protests erupted in Baghdad and cities in the mainly Shia south like Nasiriyah against corruption, unemployment, poor public services and neighbouring Iran’s influence over Iraq.
Two years on, the protests have died down across much of the country. But in Nasiriyah, simmering public anger is still palpable. From time to time, young demonstrators still take to the streets, which are filled with posters of “martyrs” killed in clashes with security forces.
Anas said the protests changed his life and opened his eyes to the problems facing his country. “Before, I was a normal person who went to university,” he said. “But after the October revolution, I felt I had a responsibility to assume, a place to fill within society, and that my voice was being heard.”
Nearly 600 people died across Iraq and tens of thousands were wounded in violence related to the protests. More activists have been murdered since, kidnapped or intimidated, but there has been no accountability.
Haider Jaafar, 23, said that two years ago he thought elections “were the only means to change things”. Like Anas and other young graduates in Nasiriyah he is now disillusioned. “How can we hold polls when the country is awash with weapons ... when political parties wield a lot of influence and control big money?” he asked.
With so much anger bubbling, candidates hoping to be elected to the 329seat parliament have kept a low profile in Nasiriyah.