Iraqi election shakes up Shiite political old guard
The victory of the coalition led by populist cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr, and the rise of independent Shiite politicians, could foreshadow a new chapter in Iraqi politics.
Final results of Iraq's Oct. 10 elections were announced on Oct. 18. The results are expected to be approved by the federal court in two weeks without a major change.
Shiites have divided into three main groups: Sadrists with 73 seats, Nouri Maliki’s State of Law with 34 seats and the Popular Mobilization Unit’s Fatah with 17 seats. This is in addition to the majority of independents (about 40) who mostly are Shiite.
The results sent shockwaves nationwide, both in joy and disbelief. Many in the pro-protest movement cheered the electoral defeat of their primary foe: the Fatah Coalition, a powerful alliance of pro-Iran militias widely accused of killing and intimidating protesters. The coalition went from 48 seats in the 2018 election to 17 seats in the recent election, a more than 60 percent reduction. But the losing coalition’s politicians and supporters, refusing to acknowledge defeat, campaigned to discredit Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), and issued thinly veiled threats that “social peace” would be disturbed if election results stood.
As IHEC stood by the results, Fatah heated up the rhetoric, asking its supporters to take to the streets in protest. It was a poor showing: a few hundreds in Baghdad and other cities in the south and the middle Euphrates region. People close to Fatah raised the possibility of resorting to arms “to correct the results.” The government responded by deploying security forces in Baghdad and elsewhere, signaling its readiness to respond to any armed breach of the peace.
