Elections in Iraq

Elections in Iraq gives information on election and election results in Iraq.

History

Under the Iraqi constitution of 1925, Iraq was a constitutional monarchy, with a bicameral legislature consisting of an elected House of Representatives and an appointed Senate. The lower house was elected every four years by manhood suffrage (that is, women did not vote). The first Parliament met in 1925. Ten general elections were held before the overthrow of the monarchy in 1958. The electoral system, however, was manipulated by the King and his advisors, who were Sunni Muslims, to ensure that the Shi'a majority were prevented from taking power.

Between 1958 and 2003 Iraq was ruled by a series of military regimes, all dominated by Iraqi Arabs, particularly after the emergence of the Ba'ath Party in the early 1960's. Under the regime of Saddam Hussein, who came to power in 1979, Kurds were persecuted. Furthermore, Arabs who were non-Ba'athist or non-Arab inclined (most notably those of Shi'ite faith) were also persecuted. Saddam's regime was largely run by Arabs from Tikrit (a mainly Sunni area), his home region. On October 16, 2002, after a well-publicized show election, Iraqi officials declared that Saddam had been re-elected to another seven-year term as President by a 100% unanimous vote of all 11,445,638 eligible Iraqis, eclipsing the 99.96% received in 1995. The United States and others outside Iraq said the vote lacked any credibility. Stories later surfaced stating that voting was compulsory and that the "yes" box had already been checked for voters in advanceFact|date=January 2008.

Post-2003 invasion

The multinational force's invasion of Iraq in 2003 overthrew Saddam's regime and installed an interim government in which all Iraq's ethnic and religious communities were represented. This government held elections on January 30 2005 to begin the process of writing a constitution. Pro-U.S. groups and the formerly excluded Shi'a and Kurd factions claimed that the January 2005 elections were the first genuinely free elections in Iraq's history, with a fair representation of all ethnic groups. This is in stark contrast to previous elections, including those under the Constitutional Monarchy decades earlier. Opponents of the occupation, such as the insurgents and the Sunni faction, claim that the elections were not genuinely free and fair, pointing to several flaws in the process. The UN adviser to Iraq's election commission, Craig Jenness, said the complaints were not significant; "I don't see anything that would necessitate a rerun...There were nearly 7,000 candidates standing in this election and only 275 seats, so you're always going to have winners and losers and it's normal that the losers won't always be happy about it." [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4555850.stm] [http://www.sptimes.com/2005/12/29/news_pf/Worldandnation/UN_led_team_finds_Ira.shtml]

Latest elections

Past elections

ee also

* History of Iraq
* Electoral calendar
* Electoral system

External links

* [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/02/opinion/02allawi.html Op-Ed by former Iraqi Premier Ayad Allawi on Iraqi electoral reform]
* [http://psephos.adam-carr.net/countries/i/iraq/ Adam Carr's Election Archive]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4555850.stm UN rules out Iraqi election rerun]
* [http://www.sptimes.com/2005/12/29/news_pf/Worldandnation/UN_led_team_finds_Ira.shtml UN-led team finds Iraq election credible]
* [http://www.aceproject.org/ero-en/regions/middle-east/IQ/iraq-electoral-system/ Iraq's Electoral system is a part of the problem] says Regional Expert