Iraq's parliament postpones discussions on 'controversial' amendments to provincial elections law

Iraq's parliament on Monday postponed for the second time a discussion on a controversial amendment of the country's provincial election law after protesters rejected amendments proposed by pro-Iran Shia political blocs. 

The second reading and discussions on the third amendment of Law 12 of 2018 regarding elections of provincial councils have been adjourned to Saturday upon a request by 50 lawmakers, the parliament said in a statement on its official website. 

Pro-Iran Shia blocs, which have a majority in the parliament, want to amend the law by reducing the number of electoral districts and returning to the Sainte Lague system of proportional representation.  As per a previous decision by Iraq's Supreme Federal Court, the parliament should amend the law so that provincial elections can be held by October. 

Independent lawmakers, who refuse any reduction of the number of electoral districts, boycotted another session on 23 February, consequently ensuring a lack of quorum for parliament. 

On Monday, demonstrators who gathered in the capital city of Baghdad rejected a return to the Sainte Lague system of proportional representation.

Amending the law would be a big challenge for the ruling parties and the Iraqi government of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani. Although Iraq's firebrand Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr last year announced he is resigning from politics, he is expected to reject any amendments seen in favour of pro-Iran parties. 

According to Twitter posts, the Iraqi federal police and security forces linked to pro-Iran Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) on Monday tried to control the buildings around Baghdad's Tahrir square but Sadr's militia, known as Saraya al-Salam, did not let them take over a Turkish restaurant- which was a crucial building overlooking the square that was the main hub of the October 2019 protests. 

Mortaza al-Bahdili, Saraya al-Salam's formal spokesperson, reportedly told Shafaq News Iraqi that their forces have been controlling the building since 2019 and that they are administering the site in coordination with Iraq's security forces. 

"Returning to the Sainte Lague system of proportional representation is a retreat for democracy in Iraq," Aram Jamal, an expert on elections systems at the Kurdish Institute for Elections, told The New Arab in an interview over the phone.

"If the political parties want to promote democracy in the country, they will never return to the proportional representation system. The pro-Iran blocs want to impose an Iraqi version of the Sainte Lague system ranging between 7 to 9 per cent representation that is very meaningless, especially for provincial elections," Jamal added. 

He cautioned that Iraq's traditional political parties that have imposed their will over the country for decades will benefit from such an amendment, while independent candidates, as well as new political parties, would not be able to pass the 9 per cent threshold.

He also indicated Iraq's Supreme Federal Court did not identify which articles of the law should be amended.

The last provincial elections held in Iraq was on 20 April 2013, and in the Kurdistan Region, elections have not been held since 2014.

The Iraqi parliament on 28 October 2019, voted to dissolve the provincial councils; a key demand of the 2019 anti-corruption protests. Fresh provincial elections were scheduled to be held in Iraq on 20 April 2020, however, the political parties decided to postpone the elections until after the country's general early elections, held on 10 October 2021.

If Iraq holds provincial elections by October, it will not include the northern Kurdistan region.

On 1 October 2019, thousands of Iraqis held large demonstrations calling for an end to corruption among Iraq's ruling elites and the hegemony of Iran and its affiliated political parties and militias in the country. 

Soon, the peaceful demonstrations turned violent, with more than 800 protestors killed as Iraq's security forces and militias used lethal force. Thousands of others were injured.

Sadr's bloc won a majority with 73 seats in the 10 October general elections.  However, he could not form a government and consequently ordered lawmakers from his bloc to resign, which all of his MPs did on 12 June. Pro-Iran Shia blocs organised under the Coordination Framework (CF) replaced Sadr's MPs with their own, becoming the biggest bloc in the Iraqi parliament. 

Nevertheless, Sadr did not let the CF form a cabinet, ordering his followers to raid the Iraqi parliament. The disagreements led to heavy clashes between Saraya al-Salam and militias of the CF in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone.

As a result, dozens of people from both sides were killed and injured before Sadr finally ordered his militants to withdraw, vowing he would eventually quit politics.

Abdul Mahdi al-Karbalai, the representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the highest religious authority in Iraq, in the past years, openly said that the stance of the highest religious authority is that they are against closed electoral lists as well as solitary electoral districts.