BAGHDAD, Iraq — After demanding a change to the Independent High Electoral Commission, Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr insisted on changes to the electoral law itself before his widely popular movement participates in the upcoming elections. The Civil Democratic Alliance is also calling for change, as it believes replacing the current electoral law is an important step toward ending the traditional sectarian blocs.

During the Friday sermon Sept. 23, Sadr described the electoral law as “unjust” and linked changing it to “changing the miserable corrupt figures to have a reformist majority, through which reform can finally improve Iraq’s bitter situation and save the country from occupation, militias, terrorism and corruption.”

No major changes have been made to the electoral law since 2004, when the lists system was established. In 2010, Iraq was split into 18 constituencies, the number of provinces. In 2014 the Saint Lego electoral system was adopted, allowing votes to go to a chosen candidate's list. In this system, if a specific candidate does not win, a vote for him would then be counted for the candidate next in line on his list.

The main disadvantage to the current law is that if the candidates exceed the electoral threshold (the number of votes necessary to win in each constituency), then the surplus votes are distributed among the rest of the candidates from the same list. This is how some candidates made it into the parliament and local councils despite receiving few votes, while others reaped hundreds or thousands of votes but failed to reach the electoral threshold.