In Iraqi elections, guns and money still dominate
BAGHDAD — Outside the headquarters of Asaib Ahl al-Haq, one of the main Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, fighters have posted a giant banner showing the U.S. Capitol building swallowed up by red tents, symbols of a defining event in Shiite history.
It is election time in Iraq, and Asaib Ahl al-Haq — blamed for attacks on U.S. forces and listed by the United States as a terrorist organization — is just one of the paramilitary factions whose political wings are likely to win Parliament seats in Sunday’s voting. The banner’s imagery of the 7th-century Battle of Karbala and a contemporaneous quote pledging revenge sends a message to all who pass: militant defense of Shiite Islam.
Eighteen years after the United States invaded Iraq and toppled a dictator, the run-up to the country’s fifth general election highlights a political system dominated by guns and money and still largely divided along sectarian and ethnic lines.
The contest is likely to return the same main players to power, including a movement loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, a coalition connected to militias backed by Iran, and the dominant Kurdish party in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Other leading figures include a Sunni businessperson under U.S. sanctions for corruption.
In between are glimmers of hope that a reformed election law and a protest movement that prompted these elections a year early could bring some candidates who are not tied to traditional political parties into Iraq’s dysfunctional Parliament.
But persuading disillusioned voters that it is worth casting their ballots will be a challenge in a country where corruption is so rampant that many government ministries are more focused on bribes than providing public services. Militias and their political wings are often seen as serving Iran’s interests more than Iraq’s.
Almost no parties have put forth any political platforms. “I voted in the first elections, and it did not meet our goals, and then I voted in the second election, and the same faces remained,” said Wissam Ali, walking along a downtown street carrying the bumper of a car he had just bought at a market. “The third time, I decided not to vote.”
Mr. Ali, from Babil province south of Baghdad, said he taught for the last 14 years in public schools as a temporary lecturer and has been unable to get a government teaching position because he does not belong to a political party.
Starting in October 2019, protests intensified, sweeping through Baghdad and the southern provinces demanding jobs and basic public services such as electricity and clean water. The mostly young and mostly Shiite protesters demanded change in a political system where government ministries are awarded as prizes to the biggest political blocs.
The protesters called for an end to Iranian influence in Iraq through proxy militias that now are officially part of Iraq’s security forces but only nominally under government control.
In response, security forces killed almost 600 unarmed protesters, according to the Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights.