Politics of Iraq

Council of Representatives of Iraq

The federal government of Iraq is defined under the current constitution as an Islamic,[3] democratic, federal parliamentary republic.[4] The federal government is composed of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches, as well as numerous independent commissions.

The legislative branch is composed of the Council of Representatives and a Federation Council.[5] The executive branch is composed of the president, the prime minister, and the Council of Ministers.[6] The federal judiciary is composed of the Higher Judicial Council, the Supreme Court, the Court of Cassation, the Public Prosecution Department, the Judiciary Oversight Commission, and other federal courts that are regulated by law.[7] One such court is the Central Criminal Court.

The Independent High Commission for Human Rights, the Independent High Electoral Commission, and the Commission on Integrity are independent commissions subject to monitoring by the Council of Representatives.[8] The Central Bank of Iraq, the Board of Supreme Audit, the Communications and Media Commission, and the Endowment Commission are financially and administratively independent institutions.[9] The Foundation of Martyrs is attached to the Council of Ministers.[10] The Federal Public Service Council regulates the affairs of the federal public service, including appointment and promotion.[11]

The basic subdivisions of the country are the regions and the governorates. Both regions and governorates are given broad autonomy with regions given additional powers such as control of internal security forces for the region such as police, security forces, and guards.[12] The last local elections for the governorates were held in the 2009 Iraqi governorate elections on 31 January 2009.

The constitution requires that the Council of Representatives enact a law which provides the procedures for forming a new region 6 months from the start of its first session.[13] A law was passed 11 October 2006 by a unanimous vote with only 138 of 275 representatives present, with the remaining representatives boycotting the vote.[14][15] Legislators from the Iraqi Accord Front, Sadrist Movement and Islamic Virtue Party all opposed the bill.[16]

Under the law, a region can be created out of one or more existing governorates or two or more existing regions, and a governorate can also join an existing region to create a new region. A new region can be proposed by one third or more of the council members in each affected governorate plus 500 voters or by one tenth or more voters in each affected governorate. A referendum must then be held within three months, which requires a simple majority in favour to pass. In the event of competing proposals, the multiple proposals are put to a ballot and the proposal with the most supporters is put to the referendum. In the event of an affirmative referendum a Transitional Legislative Assembly is elected for one year, which has the task of writing a constitution for the Region, which is then put to a referendum requiring a simple majority to pass. The President, Prime Minister and Ministers of the region are elected by simple majority, in contrast to the Iraqi Council of Representatives which requires two thirds support.[15]

Iraqi Governorates

Iraq is divided into 18 governorates, which are further divided into districts:

• National Iraqi Alliance
  • Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (al-Majlis al-alalith-thaura l-islamiyya fil-Iraq) – led by Ammar al-Hakim
  • Sadrist Movement – led by Muqtada al-Sadr
  • Islamic Dawa Party – Iraq Organisation (Hizb al-Da'wa al-Islami Tendeem al-Iraq) – led by Kasim Muhammad Taqi al-Sahlani
  • Islamic Dawa Party (Hizb al-Da'wa al-Islamiyya) – led by Nouri al-Maliki
  • Tribes of Iraq Coalition – led by Hamid al-Hais
  • Islamic Fayli Grouping in Iraq – led by Muqdad Al-Baghdadi
• Democratic Patriotic Alliance of Kurdistan
  • Kurdistan Democratic Party (Partiya Demokrat a Kurdistanê) – led by Massoud Barzani
  • Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (Yaketi Nishtimani Kurdistan) – led by Jalal Talabani
  • Kurdistan Islamic Union (Yekîtiya Islamiya Kurdistan)
  • Movement for Change (Bizutnaway Gorran) – led by Nawshirwan Mustafa
  • Kurdistan Toilers' Party (Parti Zahmatkeshan Kurdistan)
  • Kurdistan Communist Party (Partiya Komunîst Kurdistan)
  • Feyli Kurd Democratic Union (Yeketîa Demokrata Kurden Feylî)
  • Assyrian Patriotic Party
• Civil Democratic Alliance
  • People's Party led by Faiq Al Sheikh Ali.
  • Iraqi Ummah Party led by Mithal Al-Alusi.
  • Iraqi Liberal Party
  • National Democratic Action Party
• Iraqi List (al-Qayimaal Iraqia)
  • Iraqi National Accord – led by Iyad Allawi
• The Iraqis – led by Ghazi al-Yawer
• Iraqi Turkmen Front (Irak Türkmen Cephesi)) (same as Alliance of the Turkomen Front of Iraq?)
• National Independent Cadres and Elites
• People's Union (Ittihad Al Shaab)
  • Iraqi Communist Party – led by Hamid Majid Mousa
• Islamic Kurdish Society – led by Ali Abd-al Aziz
• Islamic Labour Movement in Iraq
• National Democratic Party (Hizb al Dimuqratiyah al Wataniyah) – led by Samir al-Sumaidai
• National Rafidain List
  • Assyrian Democratic Movement (Zowaa Dimuqrataya Aturaya) – led by Yonadam Kanna
• Reconciliation and Liberation Bloc
• The Upholders of the Message (Al-Risaliyun)
• Mithal al-Alusi List
• Yazidi Movement for Reform and Progress

• Communist Party of Iraq
• Worker-Communist Party of Iraq
• Leftist Worker-Communist Party of Iraq
• Alliance of Independent Democrats – led by Adnan Pachachi
• National Democratic Party – Naseer al-Chaderchi
• Green Party of Iraq
• Iraqi Democratic Union Archived 2011-07-23 at the Wayback Machine
• Iraqi National Accord
• Constitutional Monarchy Movement – led by Sharif Ali Bin al-Hussein
• Assyrian Patriotic Party – on the Democratic Patriotic Alliance of Kurdistan list
• Assyria Liberation Party
• Kurdistan Conservative Party
• Turkmen People's Party
• Iraqi Islamic Party – led by Ayad al-Samarrai
• Al Neshoor Party

• Hizb ut-Tahrir
• Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party (Regional Command · National Command)

Iraqi police officers hold up their index fingers marked with purple indelible ink, a security measure to prevent double voting.

Elections for the National Assembly of Iraq were held on January 30, 2005 in Iraq. The 275-member National Assembly was a parliament created under the Transitional Law during the Occupation of Iraq. The newly elected transitional Assembly was given a mandate to write the new and permanent Constitution of Iraq and exercised legislative functions until the new Constitution came into effect, and resulted in the formation of the Iraqi Transitional Government.

The United Iraqi Alliance, tacitly backed by Shia Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, led with some 48% of the vote. The Democratic Patriotic Alliance of Kurdistan was in second place with some 26% of the vote. Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's party, the Iraqi List, came third with some 14%. In total, twelve parties received enough votes to win a seat in the assembly.

Low Arab Sunni turnout threatened the legitimacy of the election, which was as low as 2% in Anbar province. More than 100 armed attacks on polling places took place, killing at least 44 people (including nine suicide bombers) across Iraq, including at least 20 in Baghdad.

Iraqis in the predominantly Sunni city of Husaybah, wait in lines to vote during the national election.

Following the ratification of the Constitution of Iraq on 15 October 2005, a general election was held on 15 December to elect the permanent 275-member Iraqi Council of Representatives.

The elections took place under a list system, whereby voters chose from a list of parties and coalitions. 230 seats were apportioned among Iraq's 18 governorates based on the number of registered voters in each as of the January 2005 elections, including 59 seats for Baghdad Governorate.[17] The seats within each governorate were allocated to lists through a system of Proportional Representation. An additional 45 "compensatory" seats were allocated to those parties whose percentage of the national vote total (including out of country votes) exceeds the percentage of the 275 total seats that they have been allocated. Women were required to occupy 25% of the 275 seats.[18] The change in the voting system gave more weight to Arab Sunni voters, who make up most of the voters in several provinces. It was expected that these provinces would thus return mostly Sunni Arab representatives, after most Sunnis boycotted the last election.

Turnout was high (79.6%). The White House was encouraged by the relatively low levels of violence during polling,[19] with one insurgent group making good on a promised election day moratorium on attacks, even going so far as to guard the voters from attack.[20] President Bush frequently pointed to the election as a sign of progress in rebuilding Iraq. However, post-election violence threatened to plunge the nation into civil war, before the situation began to calm in 2007. The election results themselves produced a shaky coalition government headed by Nouri al-Maliki.

A parliamentary election was held in Iraq on 7 March 2010. The election decided the 325 members of the Council of Representatives of Iraq who will elect the Iraqi Prime Minister and President. The election resulted in a partial victory for the Iraqi National Movement, led by former Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, which won a total of 91 seats, making it the largest alliance in the council. The State of Law Coalition, led by incumbent Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, was the second largest grouping with 89 seats.

The election was rife with controversy.[21] Prior to the election, the Supreme Court in Iraq ruled that the existing electoral law/rule was unconstitutional,[22] and a new elections law made changes in the electoral system.[23] On 15 January 2010, the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) banned 499 candidates from the election due to alleged links with the Ba'ath Party.[24] Before the start of the campaign on 12 February 2010, IHEC confirmed that most of the appeals by banned candidates had been rejected and 456 of the initially banned candidates would not be allowed to run for the election.[25] There were numerous allegations of fraud,[26][27] and a recount of the votes in Baghdad was ordered on 19 April 2010.[28] On May 14, IHEC announced that after 11,298 ballot boxes had been recounted, there was no sign of fraud or violations.

The new parliament opened on 14 June 2010.[29] After months of fraught negotiations, an agreement was reached on the formation of a new government on November 11.[30] Talabani would continue as president, Al-Maliki would stay on as prime minister and Allawi would head a new security council.

Parliamentary elections were held in Iraq on 30 April 2014. The elections decided the 328 members of the Council of Representatives who will in turn elect the Iraqi President and Prime Minister.

On 30 November 2021, the political bloc led by Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr was confirmed the winner of the October parliamentary election. His Sadrist Movement, won a total of 73 out of the 329 seats in the parliament. The Taqadum, or Progress Party-led by Parliament Speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi, a Sunni – secured 37 seats. Former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s State of Law party got 33 seats in parliament. Al-Fatah alliance, whose main components are militia groups affiliated with the Iran-backed Popular Mobilisation Forces, sustained its crushing loss and snatched 17 seats. The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) received 31 seats, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) gained 18.[31]

According to Transparency International, Iraq's is the most corrupt government in the Middle East, and is described as a "hybrid regime" (between a "flawed democracy" and an "authoritarian regime").[32] The 2011 report "Costs of War" from Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies concluded that U.S. military presence in Iraq has not been able to prevent this corruption, noting that as early as 2006, "there were clear signs that post-Saddam Iraq was not going to be the linchpin for a new democratic Middle East."[33]