According to the preliminary results, the winner of the Iraqi parliamentary elections was the coalition led by the current Prime Minister Muhammad Shia al-Sudan, the electoral commission announced on Wednesday. According to her, more than 1.3 million people voted for the coalition, securing the highest number of seats in eight out of a total of 18 provinces. TASR informs about it according to the report of the AP agency.
None of the participating parties won enough votes in the elections to be able to form a government without partners. The strongest parties will now have to make agreements in order to secure a majority in the parliament.
In several previous Iraqi elections, the bloc that won the most seats was unable to field its preferred candidateReuters recalled. According to local customs, the post of prime minister is held by a Shiite Muslim, the speaker of the parliament is a Sunni, and the largely ceremonial office of the president is held by a Kurd.
Final voter turnout was approximately 56 percent of registered voters. They include those who voted on Tuesday, as well as members of the armed and security forces and internally displaced persons living in camps who voted by special vote on Sunday. “Voter participation is clear evidence of further success, which is reflected in the restoration of confidence in the political system,” he said in a televised speech after announcing the preliminary results of al-Sudanese.
The biggest surprise and twist in the election, according to Reuters, is that The Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) won the highest number of seats in the predominantly Sunni Arab province of Ninawa. However, in general, Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds have achieved victory in those regions where they have the majority of their communities.
Earlier, the influential Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose movement won the largest number of seats in the elections four years ago, called on his supporters to boycott the elections.but later – after unsuccessful negotiations on the formation of the government – it was withdrawn. As-Sadr has been boycotting the entire political system in Iraq ever since.
As-Sudan was first elected in 2022 with the support of pro-Iranian parties and ran for a second term in Tuesday’s election. The vote came more than two decades after the US invasion that led to the overthrow of President Saddam Hussein’s regime, This period was followed by years of fighting against the Islamic State (IS) jihadist organization.
