Iraq: No more ethnic, sectarian divisions

Dubai: More than 6,220 candidates will compete today for the 325-seat house of representatives in Iraq. Some 300,000 employees will facilitate the election to be held in 8,920 centres and 642,000 stations throughout the country.

The number of eligible voters is 19 million, including 2 million living abroad

As per the law, women have been allocated a 25 per cent quota, which translates to 82 seats and another eight seats are for ethnic and religious minorities.

Political analysts and experts on parliamentary issues in Iraq believe women candidates, who form 28.8 per cent of the total number of candidates, will be able to achieve more than the quota set for them. They said women fared well in the 2005 elections and all political blocs have included women candidates in their lists.

Maysoun Al Damlouji, spokeswoman for Iraqiya, believes women deserve more than 50 per cent of the parliamentary seats. She said the current 25 per cent quota has just given women half their rights.

"The 82 seats allocated for women in the upcoming parliament are just the start of women achieving their rights in the new Iraq," Maysoun said.

Iraqis for the first time are not divided on ethnic and sectarian lines. Each of the 260 political blocs registered for the election has listed people based on their political programmes and not on ethnic or sectarian affiliation.

Shiite blocs have included Sunni candidates on their lists. The lists of the State of Law, led by Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri Al Maliki, includes Sunnis, Kurds and other ethnic groups. The bloc of Ebrahim Al Jaafari — another Shiite leader and ex-prime minister of the country — has also included Sunni candidates.

The same sectarian and ethnic variety can be noticed in the secular Al Iraqiya bloc, led by ex-prime minister Dr Eyad Alawi.

"It is quite clear Iraqi politicians have learnt a lesson and realised Iraq cannot be ruled by one sect," Dr Jamil Ahmad, political analyst told Gulf News.

By ensuring the representation of various sects and ethnicities in different political blocs competing in the 18 governorates of Iraq, he said chiefs of political groups seem eager to earn the support of different ethnic and sectarian components.

"Forming alliances among candidates who have minimum political agreement and mutual ground on how to run the country in the coming four years has been the new phenomenon in the development of the political system in Iraq," Dr Ahmad added.

Kasim Al Aboudi, member of the nine-member board of the Iraqi High Election Commission, told Gulf News the election has been designed to be semi-open.

"This means Iraqi electorates are given the chance to choose their preferred candidate from amongst other candidates in their favourite political bloc," he said.

"The electoral regime is a semi-open proportional system that allows blocs to win seats based on the percentage of valid votes they earn in their constituencies," he said.

He said the winners of 310 parliamentary seats are selected from the winning lists.

"The number of seats allocated for blocs competing in the election is calculated based on the electoral factor in the province. The factor [the baseline] is equal to the total number of valid votes in the province divided by the number of allocated seats," Al Aboudi said.

The political list that earns votes less than the electoral factor will be excluded from parliament, he said.

In addition to the eight seats allocated for minorities, Al Aboudi said the remaining seven compensatory seats are allocated for the top winners of the seats in parliament.