Elections

  • Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq

    The Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq is the body responsible for overseeing voting in post-Saddam Iraq.

    All kinds of information about elections and referenda in Iraq, including laws, results, how to vote from abroad, and lists of contestants in the December 2005 elections. Most available in both Arabic and English.

  • Parliamentary Elections (Dec 2005)

    National elections for the 275-seat National Assembly

    • First results announced (20 Jan 2006)

      The Shia-led United Iraqi Alliance have won 128 seats, but failed to obtain an absolute majority. Kurdish parties under the Kurdistan Alliance won 53 seats and the main Sunni Arab bloc, the Iraqi Accord Front, won 44.

      25 seats went to the (secular-list) Iraqi National List, 11 to the (Sunni) Iraqi Front for National Dialogue, and 14 to other parties.

    • International election monitoring team releases report (19 Jan 2006)

      The International Mission for Iraqi Elections (IMIE) releases the report of its Assessment Team - the result of meetings with election officials, political groups, civil society organisations and foreign government representatives in Iraq.

      • praises the accomplishment of the Iraqi Electoral Commission in "giving the vast majority of Iraqis an opportunity to vote" on a single day, when few, if any, government institutions can operate effectively in all parts of the country.

      • "Shortcomings" included security problems, unequal geographical distribution of polling stations, ballot paper shortages in some areas, problems with voter lists, and fraud.

      • Iraqi election officials investigated some 2000 complaints, voided the results from 227 out of around 30,000 ballot boxes, and instigated some criminal proceedings. It notes that these cancellations were not followed by re-voting - "particularly regrettable in an electoral system of list proportional representation where the number of votes required to win or lose a seat may vary from governorate to governorate as well as from a given seat to another seat". It urges that future Iraqi legislation establish a mechanism for re-voting following fraud or irregularities.

      • Breakdowns of these complaints are pending translation.