Iraqis will elect members of their provincial councils on Monday. This is the first vote of its kind in a decade and will help consolidate the power of pro-Iran Shiite parties, although turnout was barely above 20% at midday.
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Influential Shiite religious leader Moqtada Sadr, who has joined the opposition, is boycotting elections in 15 provinces. There is disillusionment in a country of 43 million rich in hydrocarbons but undermined by endemic corruption.
As of Monday lunchtime, voter turnout was 17%, an election commission official, Judge Omar Ahmed, announced during a televised address.
“The number of voters should increase in the afternoon and evening,” he said, urging Iraqis to vote “to contribute to the success of the electoral process, which is taking place in a safe and stable climate.”
Polls close at 6:00 p.m. (3:00 p.m. GMT). AFP journalists noted a low voter turnout this morning at three polling stations in the capital Baghdad, but also in the cities of Najaf, Basra and Nassiriya (south).
“If I don't go to vote, if no one else goes, it will be the jungle,” Amin Saleh, a 63-year-old civil servant, told AFP at a polling station in the Iraqi capital. “We need an elected official who will truly serve (his constituency). How can we get it if not by voting?,” he pleads.
The vote is a test for Mohamed Chia al-Soudani's government. He was appointed by a coalition of pro-Iranian parties and is promoting his policies of expanding public services and infrastructure devastated by decades of conflict.
“Participation will be the ultimate indicator of satisfaction,” Renad Mansour of the Chatham House think tank tells AFP. “The question is whether the government’s economic populism – the distribution of jobs (in the public sector) – works and attracts young audiences or not.”
“Social basis”
Established after the American invasion and overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003, local councils enjoy important prerogatives: electing the province's governor and allocating health, transportation or education budgets.
Your critics see these councils as pockets of corruption that encourage clientelism.
Around 17 million voters are asked to choose between 6,000 candidates vying for 285 seats in the relevant provinces.
According to the electoral commission, “provisional” results are expected on Tuesday, 24 hours after voting ends.
The vote is expected to consolidate factions of the Coordination Framework, a pro-Iran coalition that represents Shiite parties and former Hachd al-Chaabi paramilitaries and is integrated into the regular armed forces.
For certain heavyweights of this alliance who dominate parliament, the elections are an “opportunity” to “prove that they have a social base and are popular,” emphasizes Mansour. Especially since parliamentary elections are already coming up in 2025.
Moqtada Sadr, a key player in the Shiite scene, announced his withdrawal from political life after a standoff with his opponents in the summer of 2022 that was marked by deadly clashes.
“What's the point?”
During a revolt against power in autumn 2019, the provincial councils were dissolved by parliament. But Mr Soudani's government confirmed its reinstatement and Monday's elections will be the first since 2013.
The three provinces of the Kurdistan Autonomous Region (North) are excluded.
“What good will these elections do for us,” says Abou Ali, a 45-year-old taxi driver. “The years go by, the elections repeat themselves (…) and our situation remains the same,” he confided to AFP in Baghdad.
In a multi-religious and multi-ethnic Iraq, ten seats will go to minorities – Christians, Yazidis or Sabeans. There are 1,600 women among the candidates, for whom a quota of 25% is reserved.
While the Baghdad Provincial Council has 49 elected officials, the Basra (South) Provincial Council has 22.
Observers are monitoring Kirkuk, an oil-rich northern province where historic rivalries could flare up again between major parties in the Arab, Kurdish and Turkmen communities.