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Iraq passes electoral reforms but political deadlock remains

December 25, 2019 at 11:22 am

A parliamentary session at the Parliament Building in Baghdad, Iraq on 3 September 2018 [Haydar Karaalp/Anadolu Agency]

Iraq’s parliament approved on Tuesday a new electoral law, a key demand of protesters to make elections fairer, but political deadlock is still holding up the selection of an interim prime minister, threatening renewed unrest, reports Reuters.

Mass protests have gripped Iraq since October 1 and protesters, most of them young, are demanding an overhaul of a political system they see as profoundly corrupt and keeping most Iraqis in poverty. More than 450 people have been killed.

“In the name of Iraq, and in the name of the Iraqi people, in the name of the martyrs, in the name of all those who sacrificed, in the name of the displaced, the law has been approved,” Council of Representatives Speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi said after the vote.

The new election law passed by parliament will allow voters to elect individual lawmakers instead of choosing from party lists, and have each member of parliament represent a specific electoral district instead of groups of legislators representing entire provinces.

Read: Iraq protesters start hunger strike ahead of vote on new electoral law

“This decision is the decision of the people; the people who were patient here in Tahrir Square. They made their decision known, which is for elections to be individual 100 percent,” said protester Dawood Salman, 58, speaking from the central Baghdad square that has become the uprising’s epicentre.

Protesters have demanded not just a new electoral law, but also the removal of the entire ruling elite seen as enriching itself off the state and serving foreign powers – above all Iran – as many Iraqis languish in poverty without jobs, healthcare or education, and an independent premier with no party affiliation.

“Hopefully this is a sign of things to come, this is the first step towards meeting our demands. We now want the actualisation of the other demands: to have a president, prime minister, and speaker who all do not belong to any party,” said protester Hashim Mohammed.

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