The Iraqi Parliament endorsed on Monday the return to the electoral system before the anti-power movement of 2019 , angering the independent opposition parties who see it as a way to make them disappear. The session, organized during the night, saw the expulsion of independent deputies who loudly expressed their disagreement, according to videos shot by the elected officials themselves.

A press release from the Assembly indicates that the law " has been adopted ", without detailing the count of the votes. The unicameral parliament is dominated by the Coordination Framework, an alliance of pro-Iran Shia parties from which Prime Minister Mohamed Chia al-Soudani is drawn

The text consecrates the return to the 2018 electoral law, sweeping away one of the achievements of the vast anti-power protest movement which shook Iraq in the fall of 2019. At the time, the demonstrators had torn off the implementation introduction of a system favoring the emergence of independent candidates. During the last legislative elections of 2021, some 70 of them had thus obtained a seat, out of the 329 in Parliament.

The text will govern the next legislative elections, the date of which has not yet been set, as well as the provincial elections scheduled for November 6, except in Iraqi Kurdistan. In this autonomous region, the regional must take place on November 18 in a separate electoral framework. The new law signs the abolition of the 83 existing electoral districts. Instead, each of the 18 provinces constitutes a constituency.

This measure " will allow leaders of major parties to win seats more easily ," said political analyst Sajad Jiyad on Twitter. Conversely, “ small parties and independents will find it more difficult to campaign, (because) they will be competing at the provincial level and not at the local level ”. Iraq is also returning to a proportional voting system which has the reputation of favoring the biggest parties. Because, explains Mr. Jiyad, the candidates of the largest parties will be able to “ win seats, even if they have not collected enough votes ”.

From now on, " small candidates will no longer have any hope of obtaining representation in Parliament ", regretted Alaa al-Rikabi, an independent deputy. " They will be crushed ," he told AFP. Conversely, Bahaa al-Dine Nouri, deputy of the Coordinating Framework, welcomed this law, because it will make it possible to " distribute the seats according to the weight of the parties ". For him, this will make it possible to form a government more quickly and avoid the endless standoffs that punctuated the post-election period in 2021 and 2022.