| Iraqi Legislative Election, December 2005 |
Article Index for Iraqi Legislative |
Shopping Legislative |
Website Links For Iraqi |
Information AboutIraqi Legislative Election, December 2005 |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT IRAQI LEGISLATIVE ELECTION, DECEMBER 2005 | |
| 2005 elections | |
| 2005 in iraq | |
| legislative election, december | |
| elections in iraq | |
|
Following the Ratification of the Constitution Of Iraq on October 15 2005 , a general election was held on 15 December to elect a permanent 275-member Iraqi National Assembly . The elections took place under a list system, whereby voters chose from a voters, who make up most of the of voters in several provinces. It is expected that these provinces will thus return mostly Sunni Arab representatives. The nationwide vote of the previous election meant that the low Voter Turnout among Sunni Arabs was overwhelmed by the high turnout of the Arab Shi'ites and the mostly Sunni Kurds . In the previous election the largest Sunni Arab block received only 5 seats. Arab Sunni parties withdrew from the elections so late that they could not be removed from the voting lists. The election was boycotted by most Sunni Arabs. FULL RESULTS Final uncertified results were released by the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq on Friday 20th January 2006. Certified results are expected to be released within two weeks, after the adjudication of any appeals and after lists have submitted the names of people who will take the seats. {Link without Title} See also : Members Of The 1st Iraqi Council Of Representatives NEW GOVERNMENT See Also: Government of Iraq, 2006-2010 Negotiations are currently on-going to form a new government in Iraq. Under the Constitution Of Iraq this must be agreed by May 2006. A coalition is expected to be formed between the United Iraqi Alliance , Iraqi Accord Front and the Kurdish Alliance . IMPACT OF ELECTION The election is expected to have a significant impact on the politics of Iraq. Most significant developments are expected to be: Removal of coalition soldiers from Iraq According to an Opinion Poll carried out for the British Ministry Of Defence in August 2005 by Iraqi university researchers and leaked to the British press, 82 per cent of Iraqis are ''strongly opposed'' to the presence of US and other coalition troops and less than one per cent believe that the coalition troops are responsible for any improvement in security, so the new Assembly is expected to press for removal of foreign troops. {Link without Title} Broadening of political space This election will see the participation of two important groups - the Sunnis and the Sadrists - who did not participate significantly in the prior legislative elections. The domestic component of the insurgency has been linked to both groups. Debate over Federalism and Succession The elected Assembly will have the difficult task of ratifying a constitution. The initial debate is likely to focus on the power of a Centralized Government versus a more localised power structure, in particular including policies surrounding Oil and other natural resources, security and civil services. Increased choice within communities All three main communities will go into these elections with at least two significant coalitions to choose from. Parties have split from both the main Shi'a and Kurdish coalitions and two lists from the Sunni community are tipped to win significant support in that community. Anti-incumbency vote The main competition in the last election within the majority Shi'a community was between the secular outgoing Prime Minister , Iyad Allawi , and the United Iraqi Alliance which was backed by the religious authorities. This time the religious authorities have refused to back the Alliance and this may be influential in persuading some Shi'a to consider supporting Allawi. However, religious voters may prefer to vote for Sadr rather than casting their vote for Allawi, who is considered pro-American. Averting a Civil War Some predicted that if there wasn't a balance of representation between Sunnis and Shias, that the country was at risk of increased insurgency and perhaps civil war. The likelihood of a civil war remains remote. The current insurgency, lacking the command and control infrastructure needed for large scale military operations, is not equipped to stage more than a haphazard guerrilla campaign. The withdrawal of 150,000 U.S. and British troops on the ground in Iraq, as desired by about 82 percent of Iraqis, is likely to remove motivation for internal Iraqi conflict, since only about one percent of Iraqis believe that the coalition troops are responsible for any improvements in security in Iraq. According to an interview with Rajaa Al-Bhayesh , a political scientist at Baghdad's Mustansiriya University , fear of wider civil conflict -- beyond the likely continuation of violence by fringe groups like Al Qaeda -- is likely to promote the spirit of compromise. [http://www.aina.org/news/20051216103630.htm PARTIES AND COALITIONS The deadline for registering parties and coalitions closed on 28 October. The Electoral Commission announced that 228 lists had been registered, including 21 coalitions. The emerging Iraqi political scene has been marked by groups of established parties running on joint lists, often grouped on sectarian or ethnic grounds. These lists are not necessarily stable, as the parties sharing a list may be past or present rivals; the situation will be even more complicated for the December 2005 election because parties can form different alliances in different governorates. The landscape is currently fluid; what follows is a list of some of the more important parties and coalitions, with a focus on alliances that have shifted since the January 2005 election. United Iraqi Alliance (#555) This coalition, dominated by Shi'ite parties, was formed to contest the January 2005 election with the blessing of Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani , the most senior Shi'ite Cleric based in Iraq. It won the most votes in that election and became the senior partner in the coalition government that ran Iraq for most of 2005. The UIA's main components were:
In advance of the December 2005 elections, Moqtada Al-Sadr 's party chose to join the Alliance. However, the Iraqi National Congress and Iraqi Hezbollah left the Alliance to form their own lists. In a blow to the Alliance, Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani announced that he would not back any particular party for the election; he merely encouraged people to vote "according to their beliefs." He is said to have been disappointed with the performance of the transitional government. It was initially reported before the election that the UIA seats would be split between the parties as follows:
Analysis of the seat allocation after the elections showed that the 109 district seats and 19 compensatory seats won by the UIA were split as follows:
{Link without Title} {Link without Title} The Kurdistan Alliance (#730) This Kurdish-dominated coalition was formed for the January 2005 election by the two main Kurdish parties -- the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Kurdish Autonomous Region President Masoud Barzani and the Patriotic Union Of Kurdistan of the transitional Iraqi President Jalal Talabani -- plus some other smaller parties. The DPAK formed a coalition government with the UIA in the wake of the January 2005 elections. This coalition will also contest the December elections, but the smaller Kurdistan Islamic Union , who won 10 percent of the seats in the Dahuk and Sulaymaniyah governorate elections in January, has announced that it will form its own governmental lists. Iraqi National List (#731) The Iraqi List was established by Iyad Allawi , who served as interim Prime Minister before the January 2005 election. It is dominated by his Iraqi National Accord party. For the December 2005 election, it has joined forces with Former Interim President Ghazi Al-Yawar 's The Iraqis list, the People's Union list (which is dominated by the Iraqi Communist Party ), and the Sunni Arab politician Adnan Pachachi and his Assembly Of Independent Democrats to form a single list called the Iraqi National List. This list will attempt to present a secular and trans-community alternative to the other major lists, which are more based on the support of a single ethnic or religious groups. Iraqi Accord Front (#618) The , which is influential in the Sunni community, has called for a boycott of the December elections, which could have an adverse impact on the Iraqi Accord Front's success. Other lists
FRAUD ALLEGATIONS On December 22, 2005 Sunni Arab and secular Shiite factions demanded that an international body review election fraud complaints, and threatened to boycott the new legislature. The United Nations rejected the idea. On Friday, December 23 , 2005 , large demonstrations broke out across Iraq to denounce the parliamentary elections. Protesters said that the elections were rigged in favor of the main religious Shiite coalition. Many Iraqis outside the religious Shiite coalition allege that the elections were unfair to smaller Sunni Arab and secular Shiite groups. As many as 20,000 people demonstrated after noon prayers in southern Baghdad . Over 2,000 people demonstrated in Mosul , accusing Iran of having a hand in election fraud. Sheik Mahmoud Al-Sumaidaei of the Association Of Muslim Scholars , a major Sunni clerical group, told followers during prayers at Baghdad's Umm Al-Qura Mosque that they were "living a conspiracy built on lies and forgery." {Link without Title} 2 Violience grew over the controversial election results. Car bombings and attacks on US and Iraqi officials continued after the elections. In Mosul Qusay Salahaddin , a Sunni Arab student leader was abducted and killed after leading a demonstration against the election results. Some 2,000 fellow students gathered at the mosque where Salahaddin's body was taken. Sunni's quickly accused militia forces loyal to one of the main parties in the Shiite Alliance bloc for Salahaddin's death. No group has yet claimed responsiblity for the murder. {Link without Title} EXTERNAL REFERENCES
|
|
|