2010 Iraqi Legislative Election
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Parliamentary elections were held in
Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...
on 7 March 2010. The elections decided the 325 members of the Council of Representatives who would elect the
prime minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
and
president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...
. The elections resulted in a partial victory for the
Iraqi National Movement The Iraqi National Movement (INM) (Arabic language, Arabic: الحركة الوطنية العراقية ''al-Ḥaraka al-Waṭaniya al-Iraqiyya''), more commonly known as the al-Iraqiya List, was an Iraqi political coalition formed to contest the ...
, led by former Interim Prime Minister
Ayad Allawi Ayad Allawi (; also spelled Iyad or Eyad; born 31 May 1944) is an Iraqi-British politician and neurologist. He served as the vice president of Iraq from 2014 to 2015 and 2016 to 2018. Previously he was interim prime minister of Iraq from 2004 to ...
, which won 91 seats, making it the largest alliance in the Council. The
State of Law Coalition State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...
, led by incumbent Prime Minister
Nouri Al-Maliki Nouri Kamil Muhammad-Hasan al-Maliki (; born 20 June 1950), also known as Jawad al-Maliki (), is an Iraqi politician and leader of the Islamic Dawa Party since 2007. He served as the Prime Minister of Iraq from 2006 to 2014 and as Vice President ...
, was the second largest grouping with 89 seats. Prior to the election, the Supreme Court in Iraq ruled that the existing electoral law/rule was unconstitutional, and a new elections law made changes in the electoral system. On 15 January 2010, the
Independent High Electoral Commission The Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) is Iraq's electoral commission. The electoral commission is headed by a nine-member board. Seven of those members are voting and must be Iraqi citizens. IHEC is currently headed by Judge Jalil Adn ...
(IHEC) banned 499 candidates from the election due to alleged links with the Ba'ath Party. Before the start of the campaign on 12 February 2010, IHEC confirmed that the appeals by banned candidates had been rejected and thus all 456 banned candidates would not be allowed to run for the election. The turnout was low (62.4%) compared to the elections of 2005 (79.6%). There were numerous allegations of fraud, and a recount of the votes in Baghdad was ordered on 19 April 2010. On 14 May 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. After months of fraught negotiations, an agreement was reached on the formation of a new government on 11 November. Talabani would continue as president, Al-Maliki would stay on as prime minister and Allawi would head a new security council.


Electoral system

The necessary election law was only passed on 8 November 2009, and the UN Mission in Iraq, which is helping with the elections, estimated that it needed 90 days to plan for the election. The electoral commission asked for a delay from the original date of 15 January. Iraqi Vice President
Tariq Al-Hashimi Tariq al-Hashimi (; born 1942) is an Iraqi politician who served as the general secretary of the Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP) until May 2009. He served as the Vice President of Iraq from 2006 to 2012. As a Sunni, he took the place of fellow Sunni ...
vetoed the election law on 18 November 2009, delaying the election, which was originally scheduled for 21 January. Prior to the election, the Supreme Court in Iraq ruled that the existing electoral rule was unconstitutional. The
parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
therefore set about drafting a new electoral law. The Iraqi cabinet approved a draft elections law in September 2009. However, it took two months and ten delays for the law to pass in the Council of Representatives. The main areas of dispute concerned the "open list" electoral system and the voters roll in
Kirkuk Governorate Kirkuk Governorate (; ; ) or Kirkuk Province is a governorate in northern Iraq. The governorate has an area of . In 2017, the estimated population was 1,259,561 people. The provincial capital is the city of Kirkuk. It is divided into four Distri ...
, which Arab and Turkmen parties alleged had been manipulated by the
Kurdistan Regional Government The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is the official executive body of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq. The cabinet is selected by the majority party or list who also select the prime minister of the Iraqi Kurdish poli ...
of Iraq. It also separated each governorate into its own electoral district, instead of the country as a whole being used as one single district.


Open lists

UNAMI Unami may refer to: * Unami people, one of the three main divisions of the Lenape Nation * Unami language, a Delaware language within the Algonquian language family *Unami Creek, a tributary of Perkiomen Creek in Pennsylvania *Unami Lodge, a Boy Sc ...
advised the electoral system was changed to allow people to vote for individuals as well as party lists under the
open list Open list describes any variant of party-list proportional representation where voters have at least some influence on the order in which a Political party, party's candidates are elected. This is as opposed to closed list, in which party lists ...
form of
proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions (Political party, political parties) amon ...
. The last national elections had used a
closed list Closed list describes the variant of party-list systems where voters can effectively vote for only political parties as a whole; thus they have no influence on the party-supplied order in which party candidates are elected. If voters had some in ...
system, but the
Iraqi governorate elections of 2009 Governorate or provincial elections were held in Iraq on 31 January 2009, to replace the local councils in fourteen of the eighteen governorates of Iraq that were elected in the 2005 Iraqi governorate elections. 14,431 candidates, including 3,9 ...
had used open lists. The move was initially supported by parliamentarians from ISCI, and the most senior Iraqi Shiite cleric, Ayatollah
Ali al-Sistani Ali al-Husayni al-Sistani (; born 4 August 1930) is an Islamic scholar and the dean of the Hawza of Najaf in Iraq. A Grand Ayatollah, Sistani is considered one of the leading religious leaders of Twelver Shia Muslims. After the invasion of ...
, warned that failure to adopt the open list system would have "''negative impacts on the democratic process''" and would reduce turnout and aides said he may call for a boycott of the polls if closed lists were used again. In the end, all parties except for the
Kurdistani Alliance The Kurdistan List (), also known as the Kurdistan Alliance or the Brotherhood List, is the name of the electoral coalition that ran in the Kurdistan Regional Government parliamentary elections in Iraqi Kurdistan in July 2009. The Kurdistan List ...
agreed to support open lists which was adopted.


Kirkuk governorate

In
Kirkuk Governorate Kirkuk Governorate (; ; ) or Kirkuk Province is a governorate in northern Iraq. The governorate has an area of . In 2017, the estimated population was 1,259,561 people. The provincial capital is the city of Kirkuk. It is divided into four Distri ...
, it was proposed to use old 2004 electoral rolls. However, Kurds protested about this, given the large number of Kurdish people who had settled there since then.
UNAMI Unami may refer to: * Unami people, one of the three main divisions of the Lenape Nation * Unami language, a Delaware language within the Algonquian language family *Unami Creek, a tributary of Perkiomen Creek in Pennsylvania *Unami Lodge, a Boy Sc ...
then proposed that Kirkuk be divided into two or more ethnic constituencies, with the Kurdish constituency given an automatic quota of 50% plus one. When put to parliament, this proposal was blocked by Arab MPs, causing a deadlock. The issue was referred to the Political Council for National Security, which comprises the President, Prime Minister and party leaders. The Council proposed to combine the electoral rolls from 2004 and 2009, but when this was put to parliament, it was blocked by Kurds. UNAMI then proposed using the 2009 records but revisiting for future elections. When put to a vote the Kurdish MPs walked out, leaving the parliament without a quorum. The final law said that the results in Kirkuk - and other governorates where the rolls were deemed "dubious" - would be provisional, subject to review within the first year by a committee formed out of the electoral commission, parliament, government and UNAMI, which could cancel fraudulent ballots. The law was passed by a vote of 141 to 54, with 80 members absent.


Seat allocation

The law increased the size of the council from 275 to 325 members – equal to one seat per 100,000 citizens, as specified in the
Constitution of Iraq The Constitution of the Republic of Iraq ( Kurdish: دەستووری عێراق) is the fundamental law of Iraq. The first constitution came into force in 1925. The current constitution was adopted on September 18, 2005 by the Transitional Nati ...
. As with the December 2005 election, seats will be allocated by governorate with additional "compensatory" seats allocated to those parties whose national share of the vote isn't reflected in the seats won at the governorate level. The votes of Iraqis living abroad would originally have been counted in the compensatory seats, which were reduced from 45 seats to 16 and eight of these 16 seats were allocated to specific national minorities – five for
Iraqi Christians The vast majority of Christians in Iraq are indigenous Assyrians who descend from ancient Assyria. They are considered to be one of the oldest and continuous Christian communities in the world. Iraqi Christians primarily adhere to the Syriac ...
and one each for
Yazidi Yazidis, also spelled Yezidis (; ), are a Kurdish-speaking endogamous religious group indigenous to Kurdistan, a geographical region in Western Asia that includes parts of Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and Iran. The majority of Yazidis remaining in ...
s, Shabak and
Mandaean Mandean or Mandaean may refer to: * Mandaeism, a Gnostic religion * Mandaeans, the ethnoreligious group who follow the Gnostic religion * Mandean, the language family in West Africa known as the Mande languages See also * Mandaic (disambiguation) ...
s. Iraqi Vice-President
Tariq al-Hashimi Tariq al-Hashimi (; born 1942) is an Iraqi politician who served as the general secretary of the Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP) until May 2009. He served as the Vice President of Iraq from 2006 to 2012. As a Sunni, he took the place of fellow Sunni ...
said the small number of compensatory seats discriminated against the estimated 2 million Iraqi refugees, many of whom are Sunni Arabs like al-Hashimi. He demanded that the number of compensatory seats be increased to 15% (48) and went on national television to say he would veto the law if it weren't amended. Sunni Arab parliamentarian
Saleh al-Mutlaq Saleh Muhammed al-Mutlaq (; born 1 July 1947) is an Iraqi politician who is the head of the Iraqi Front for National Dialogue, the fifth largest political list in Iraq's parliament. From 21 December 2010 to 11 August 2015, he was one of the thre ...
said 30 seats should be allocated to Iraqis abroad to reflect their numbers. President
Jalal Talabani Jalal Talabani (; ; 1933 – 3 October 2017) was an Iraqi Kurdish politician who served as the sixth president of Iraq from 2005 to 2014, as well as the president of the Governing Council of Iraq. Talabani was the founder and secretary-gene ...
also supported the increase to 15%, after receiving a letter from Kurdish regional MPs saying their allies from minority groups would be unfairly treated. In the event President Talabani and Vice-President
Adel Abdul Mahdi Adil Abdul-Mahdi al-Muntafiki (, born 1 January 1942) is an Iraqi politician who served as Prime Minister of Iraq from October 2018 until May 2020. Abdul-Mahdi is an economist and was one of the vice presidents of Iraq from 2005 to 2011. He fo ...
signed the law despite their concerns, but Hashimi followed through his threat and vetoed it. Parliament asked the Supreme Federal Court for advice, and it issued a statement saying that "all Iraqis, whether they live in the country or outside its borders, should be represented in the parliament." There was some confusion over this statement with the head of the legal affairs committee interpreted this as annulling the veto. However, Ayad al-Samarrai, the parliamentary speaker said the statement was not binding on parliament because it was advice rather a ruling in response to a complaint. Parliament therefore met to consider the law again. Hundreds of supporters of the Prime Minister held demonstrations against the veto in
Najaf Najaf is the capital city of the Najaf Governorate in central Iraq, about 160 km (99 mi) south of Baghdad. Its estimated population in 2024 is about 1.41 million people. It is widely considered amongst the holiest cities of Shia Islam an ...
,
Basra Basra () is a port city in Iraq, southern Iraq. It is the capital of the eponymous Basra Governorate, as well as the List of largest cities of Iraq, third largest city in Iraq overall, behind Baghdad and Mosul. Located near the Iran–Iraq bor ...
and
Wasit Wasit (, ) was an early Islamic city in Iraq. It was founded in the 8th century by the Umayyad viceroy of Iraq, al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, to serve as the region's seat and as the garrison of the Syrian troops who enforced Umayyad rule there. It was ...
. The President of Iraqi Kurdistan,
Massoud Barzani Masoud Barzani (; born 16 August 1946) is a Kurdish politician who has been leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) since 1979, and was President of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq from 2005 to 2017. Early life and career Barzani was bo ...
, then threatened to boycott the election if the representation of the three provinces in Kurdistan wasn't increased. The provinces had only gained three of the 77 additional seats. When the Iraqi Parliament met again they amended the law to provide that Iraqis abroad would vote in the governorate they lived before they left the country. The number of seats per governorate was then changed to increase all governorates by a fixed 2.8% over the 2005 population figures – meaning Kurdish areas got more seats but Sunni Arab areas got fewer. Analysts said Hashemi had "played poker and lost" and an MP from a rival Sunni Arab party said he should go and apologize to the governorates that had lost out. Tribal leaders in the Sunni Arab city of
Tikrit Tikrit ( ) is a city in Iraq, located northwest of Baghdad and southeast of Mosul on the Tigris River. It is the administrative center of the Saladin Governorate. In 2012, it had a population of approximately 160,000. Originally created as a f ...
threatened to call for a poll boycott if the amended law went through and Hashemi said he would veto again.
Internally displaced people An internally displaced person (IDP) is someone who is forced to leave their home but who remains within their country's borders. They are often referred to as refugees, although they do not fall within the legal definitions of a refugee. I ...
will only be allowed to vote where their ration card was issued, a provision that Taha Daraa, MP in Diyala, said discriminated against them and was unconstitutional. He called on the constitutional court to strike down the provision. Head of IHEC, Faraj Al Haydari, announced that curfew will be imposed and airports closed on the day of elections. The head of the IHEC electoral directorate, Haydar Al Abboudi, said he hoped to announce the results of elections three days later. The council agreed to increase the number of seats from 275 to 325. With this, the number of seats allocated to each governorate were changed from 2005 elections.


Coalitions

The
United Iraqi Alliance The National Iraqi Alliance (NIA or INA; ), also known as the Watani List, was an Iraqi electoral coalition that contested the 2010 Iraqi legislative election. The Alliance was mainly composed of Shi'a Islamist parties. The alliance was creat ...
, made up primarily of religious
Shi'ite Shia Islam is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political successor (caliph) and as the spiritual leader of the Muslim community (imam). However, his right is understood to ...
parties, won 128 out of 275 seats in the previous election and was the largest party in the parliament. The list split into two lists for this election: the
State of Law Coalition State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...
of Prime Minister
Nouri al-Maliki Nouri Kamil Muhammad-Hasan al-Maliki (; born 20 June 1950), also known as Jawad al-Maliki (), is an Iraqi politician and leader of the Islamic Dawa Party since 2007. He served as the Prime Minister of Iraq from 2006 to 2014 and as Vice President ...
and the
National Iraqi Alliance The National Iraqi Alliance (NIA or INA; ), also known as the Watani List, was an Iraqi electoral coalition that contested the 2010 Iraqi legislative election. The Alliance was mainly composed of Shi'a Islamist parties. The alliance was creat ...
, which included most of the other parties. In total 160 regular parties as well as 36 independents and 10 minority parties and candidates took part in the election, see here for a full list of the participants.


National Iraqi Alliance (NIA) – List 316

The
National Iraqi Alliance The National Iraqi Alliance (NIA or INA; ), also known as the Watani List, was an Iraqi electoral coalition that contested the 2010 Iraqi legislative election. The Alliance was mainly composed of Shi'a Islamist parties. The alliance was creat ...
(NIA or INA) is a coalition of mainly Shi'a parties. It was first mooted in August 2009 and is made up of the principal remaining components of the United Iraqi Alliance: The
Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq The Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI or SIIC; ''Al-Majlis Al-A'ala Al-Islami Al-'Iraqi''; previously known as the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, SCIRI) is a Shia Islamist political party in Iraq. It was established in ...
(ISCI) and affiliated
Badr Organization The Badr Organization ( ''Munaẓẓama Badr''), previously known as the Badr Brigades or Badr Corps, is an Iraqi Shia Islamist and Khomeinist political party and paramilitary organization headed by Hadi al-Amiri. The Badr Brigade, formed in ...
, the Sadr Movement, Ex-Prime Minister
Ibrahim al-Jaafari Ibrahim Abdul Karim al-Eshaiker (; born 25 March 1947), better known as Ibrahim al-Jaafari, is an Iraqi politician who was Prime Minister of Iraq in the Iraqi Transitional Government from 2005 to 2006, following the January 2005 Iraqi parliamenta ...
(who became the group's chairman) and his
National Reform Trend The National Reform Trend, also known as the National Reform Movement or as Islah (), is an Iraqi political party that was founded in 2008 by former Prime Minister of Iraq, Iraqi prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari. It is a Shiite-Islamic-based p ...
(Islah), the Islamic Fadhila Party and an
Islamic Dawa Party – Iraq Organisation The Islamic Dawa Party – Iraq Organisation ( Arabic: ''Ḥizb al Daʿwa al-Islāmiyya - Tanzim al-Iraq'') is the regional organisation of the Islamic Dawa Party registered after the fall of the Ba'athist regime. It was a component of the Unite ...
(Tanzim al-Iraq) breakaway faction: the
Islamic Dawa Party – Domestic Faction Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number 2 billion worldwide and are the world's second-largest religious populatio ...
(Tanzim al-Dakhli) headed by
Abdul Karim al-Anizi Abdul Karim Ayyashi al-Anizi is an Iraqi politician and a member of the National Assembly of Iraq, representing Islamic Dawa Party - Iraq Organisation, the fifth largest party within the ruling United Iraqi Alliance coalition. He served as Minis ...
. ISCI was reported to have offered to split the coalition's seats four ways: 25% to ISCI and Badr, 25% to the Sadrists, 25% to
Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
Nouri al-Maliki Nouri Kamil Muhammad-Hasan al-Maliki (; born 20 June 1950), also known as Jawad al-Maliki (), is an Iraqi politician and leader of the Islamic Dawa Party since 2007. He served as the Prime Minister of Iraq from 2006 to 2014 and as Vice President ...
's
Islamic Dawa Party The Islamic Dawa Party () is an Iraqi Shia Islamist political movement that was formed in 1957 by seminarians in Najaf, Iraq, and later formed branches in Lebanon and Kuwait. The Party backed the Iranian Revolution and also Ayatollah Ruholla ...
and 25% to minor parties and independents. However, Maliki demanded half the seats – reflecting the results of the
Iraqi governorate elections of 2009 Governorate or provincial elections were held in Iraq on 31 January 2009, to replace the local councils in fourteen of the eighteen governorates of Iraq that were elected in the 2005 Iraqi governorate elections. 14,431 candidates, including 3,9 ...
, which were won by Maliki's
State of Law Coalition State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...
– and a guarantee of another term as prime minister. He also wanted Sunni Arab parties like the Awakening movements to be included as primary members of the coalition to form what his spokesman termed "''a truly national alliance''". In September, the coalition was formally announced without the Islamic Dawa Party., quoting Al-Zaman Despite its religious Shi'a character, the alliance claims to represent all of Iraq and it also includes some secular parties such as former Oil Minister
Ahmad Chalabi Ahmed Abdel Hadi Chalabi (; 30 October 1945 – 3 November 2015) was an Iraqi dissident politician, convicted fraudster and founder of the Iraqi National Congress (INC) who served as the President of the Governing Council of Iraq ( 37th Pr ...
's
Iraqi National Congress The Iraqi National Congress (INC; ) is an Iraqi political party that was led by Ahmed Chalabi who died in 2015. It was formed as an umbrella opposition group of majority Feyli Kurds and shia Arabs, with the aid of the United States' governme ...
and Sunni parties such as Hamid Hayes' Tribes of Iraq Coalition, an al-Anbar Awakening Council splinter group.


State of Law Coalition (SLC) – List 337

After negotiations between Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and
Ammar al-Hakim Sayyid Ammar al-Hakim (; b. 1971) is an Iraqi cleric and politician who led the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI), from 2009 to 2017. He is currently the head of the National Wisdom Movement which is a political coalition in Iraq that was ...
's Islamic Supreme Council for the National Iraqi Alliance broke down, al-Maliki decided to run with the
State of Law Coalition State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...
(SLC or SLA) which was built around his Islamic Dawa Party for the 2009 local elections. The State of Law Coalition's largest component are members of al-Maliki's Dawa party and members of the incumbent al-Maliki led government. Other major notable components are the Islamic Dawa Party – Tanzim al-Iraq and Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani's "Independent Bloc". While it is a mainly Shi'a alliance, State of Law is officially a national, non-sectarian, multi-ethnic coalition. It includes several minor Sunni, Christian, Kurdish and Turkmen parties and independent candidates such as
Abbas al-Bayati Natik Abbas Hasan al-Bayati is an Iraqi Shiite Turkmen politician and a member of the Iraqi National Assembly. He is a member of the State of Law Coalition. He was exiled from Iraq under Saddam Hussein and became the Secretary General of the Isla ...
's
Islamic Union of Iraqi Turkoman The Iraqi Turkmen Islamic Union (; ) is a Shia Islamist political party made up of Iraqi Turkmen led by Abbas al-Bayati. It was formed during the 1991 Iraqi uprisings and established relations with other Iraqi rebel groups, mostly Kurdish or Shia ...
and Sheikh
Ali Hatem al-Suleiman Ali Hatem Abd al-Razzaq Ali al-Suleiman al-Assafi al-Dulaimi (; born 1971), better known as Ali Hatem al-Suleiman, is an Iraqi Sunni tribal leader who is the leader of the Dulaim tribe, in the Al Anbar Governorate. Early life Ali was born in ...
's Anbar Salvation National Front, an Anbar Awakening Council splinter group. The State of Law Coalition was the winner of the
2009 Iraqi governorate elections Governorate or provincial elections were held in Iraq on 31 January 2009, to replace the local councils in fourteen of the eighteen governorates of Iraq that were elected in the 2005 Iraqi governorate elections. 14,431 candidates, including 3, ...
, where they became the largest list, winning 126 out of 440 local seats and becoming the largest list in 8 of the 9 Shi'a provinces and Baghdad.


al-Iraqiyya (INM) – List 333

The
Iraqi National Movement The Iraqi National Movement (INM) (Arabic language, Arabic: الحركة الوطنية العراقية ''al-Ḥaraka al-Waṭaniya al-Iraqiyya''), more commonly known as the al-Iraqiya List, was an Iraqi political coalition formed to contest the ...
(INM), more commonly known as al-Iraqiyya, is the main secular, non-sectarian and
Nationalist Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...
list, it is headed by former prime minister
Ayad Allawi Ayad Allawi (; also spelled Iyad or Eyad; born 31 May 1944) is an Iraqi-British politician and neurologist. He served as the vice president of Iraq from 2014 to 2015 and 2016 to 2018. Previously he was interim prime minister of Iraq from 2004 to ...
. In the 2005 election Allawi's
Iraqi National List The Iraqi National List () was a coalition of Iraqi political parties who ran in the December 2005 Iraqi legislative election, December 2005 Iraqi elections and got 8.0% of the vote and 25 out of 275 seats. History Prior to the December election t ...
won 8% of the vote, winning votes among secular Shi'a and Sunnis. In 2009 Vice-President
Tariq al-Hashimi Tariq al-Hashimi (; born 1942) is an Iraqi politician who served as the general secretary of the Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP) until May 2009. He served as the Vice President of Iraq from 2006 to 2012. As a Sunni, he took the place of fellow Sunni ...
left the Sunni
Iraqi Islamic Party The Iraqi Islamic Party is the largest Sunni Islamist political party in Iraq as well as the most prominent member of the Iraqi Accord Front political coalition. It was part of the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and is part of th ...
(which was at the time, Iraq's main Sunni party), and launched a new party called the Renewal List. Hashimi's party joined the al-Iraqiyya. Also joining was the
Iraqi National Dialogue Front The Iraqi Front for National Dialogue (Arabic: الجبهة العراقية للحوار الوطني ''al-Jabha al-Iraqia li al-Hiwar al-Watani'') also known as Hiwar is an Iraqi Sunni Arab-led Iraqi political party. Originally formed to con ...
(Hiwar) led by former
Ba'ath Party The Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party ( ' ), also known simply as Bath Party (), was a political party founded in Syria by Michel Aflaq, Salah al-Din al-Bitar, and associates of Zaki al-Arsuzi. The party espoused Ba'athism, which is an ideology ...
member Saleh al-Mutlak. The list includes most of the country's main Sunni-based, Nationalist parties:
al-Hadba The al-Hadba party is a political party formed to contest the 2009 Iraqi governorate elections in Ninawa province. It is mostly made up of Sunni Arabs. Its leading member Atheel al-Nujaifi is brother of Osama al-Nujaifi who is part of the Iraq ...
, al-Hal, ex-President Ghazi al-Yawer's
The Iraqis Iraqis ( ; ) are the citizens and nationals of the Republic of Iraq. The majority of Iraqis are Arabs, with Kurds accounting for the largest ethnic minority, followed by Turkmen. Other ethnic groups from the country include Yazidis, Assyr ...
,
Adnan Pachachi Adnan Muzahim Ameen al-Pachachi () (14 May 1923 – 17 November 2019), better known as Adnan Pachachi, was an Iraqi politician and statesman who served as Iraq's Permanent Representative to the United Nations (1959–1965 and 1967–1969) and Min ...
's Assembly of Independent Democrats and Deputy Prime Minister
Rafi al-Issawi Rafi Hiyad al-Issawi (born 2 March 1966) is an Iraqi politician who is a former finance minister and deputy prime minister. A doctor by profession, he is the fourth most senior politician from the Sunni Arab minority after former Vice President ...
's party, as well as the country's largest Turkmen party, the
Iraqi Turkmen Front The Iraqi Turkmen Front (abbreviated as ITF) is a political movement representing the Iraqi Turkmen people. It was founded on April 5, 1995 as a coalition of several Turkmen parties operating within the framework of Iraq's unity. The party aims f ...
. In January 2010 the De-Baathification Commission barred al-Mutlak from the election due to his previous membership of the Iraqi Ba'ath Party. The al-Iraqiyya List threatened to boycott the election unless the decision was reversed.


al-Tawafuq – List 338

The
Iraqi Accord Front The Iraqi Accord Front or Iraqi Accordance Front (Arabic: جبهة التوافق العراقية ''Jabhet Al-Tawafuq Al-'Iraqiyah'') also known as Tawafuq is an Iraqi Sunni political coalition created on October 26, 2005 by the Iraqi Islamic Pa ...
, more commonly known as al-Tawafuq is a Sunni Islamist list which was the main Sunni coalition in 2005, winning 15% and 44 seats as an alliance between the
Iraqi Islamic Party The Iraqi Islamic Party is the largest Sunni Islamist political party in Iraq as well as the most prominent member of the Iraqi Accord Front political coalition. It was part of the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and is part of th ...
, the General Council for the People of Iraq (Iraqi People's Gathering) and the Iraqi National Dialogue Council. Since then the Iraqi National Dialogue Council left the alliance and after disappointing results in 2009, the Iraqi Islamic Party's leader Tariq al-Hashemi resigned from his position and left the party to create his own party and join al-Iraqiyya. The alliance still includes several independent candidates and the Sunni Islamist, Turkmen Justice Party. In 2009 Tawafuq was still the largest Sunni list with 32 seats however they received less than 25% of the votes they received in 2005 and lost in their main stronghold, the al-Anbar governorate. Meanwhile, the parties which would later form al-Iraqiyya won over 70 seats.


Iraq's Unity – List 348

Ahmed Abu Risha Sheik Ahmed Bezaa Abu Risha (Arabic: أحمد أبو ريشة) is a Sunni leader in the Al-Anbar province, and led the movement of Sunni tribesmen known as the Anbar Salvation Council. Early life Abu Risha was born in 1969 and is three years old ...
, the head of the
Awakening movement The Sons of Iraq ( ''Abnāʼ al-ʻIrāq''), also known as al-Sahwah (), were a coalition in the Al Anbar province in Iraq between Sunni tribal leaders as well as former Saddam-era Iraqi military officers that united in 2005 to maintain stabil ...
party that won the most seats in the 2009 Al Anbar governorate election, formed a coalition with Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani's
Iraqi Constitutional Party The Iraqi Constitutional Party is a political party in Iraq that was founded by Jawad Bulani in June 2005. The party is considered to be moderate and non-sectarian based. The party performed well for a non-sect based party in the governorate elect ...
and
Ahmed Abdul Ghafour al-Samarrai The Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq () is a group of religious leaders in Iraq. It was formed on the 14 April 2003, four days after the U.S.-led invasion demolished the Ba'athist regime of Saddam Hussein, by a group of scholars who aimed ...
, chief of
Sunni Endowment Office The Sunni Endowment Office, or Sunni Endowment Diwan (), is an Iraqi agency created by the Iraqi Governing Council after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. It was created from the dissolution of the Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs under ...
, called the Unity Alliance of Iraq, also known as Iraq's Unity or Iraqi Unity. Abu Risha had previously held talks with Maliki on joining the State of Law Coalition.


Kurdistani List – List 372 and other Kurdish Lists

The
Kurdistan List The Kurdistan List (), also known as the Kurdistan Alliance or the Brotherhood List, is the name of the electoral coalition that ran in the Kurdistan Regional Government parliamentary elections in Iraqi Kurdistan in July 2009. The Kurdistan List ...
called for a single pan-Kurdish list, including the Islamist parties and the opposition
Gorran Movement The Gorran Movement (, ''Movement for Change'') or just Gorran (''Change'') is a Kurdish political party in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The party is led by Dana Ahmed Majid, it was formerly under the leadership of Omar Said Ali, and was ...
, which had gained a quarter of the seats in the Iraqi Kurdistan legislative election of 2009. However, the Gorran Movement said the two main Kurdistani Alliance parties – the
Iraqi President The President of the Republic of Iraq is the head of state of Iraq. Since the mid-2000s, the presidency is primarily a symbolic office, as the position does not possess significant power within the country according to the constitution adopted ...
Jalal Talabani Jalal Talabani (; ; 1933 – 3 October 2017) was an Iraqi Kurdish politician who served as the sixth president of Iraq from 2005 to 2014, as well as the president of the Governing Council of Iraq. Talabani was the founder and secretary-gene ...
's
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK; ) is a political party active in Kurdistan Region and the Disputed territories of Northern Iraq, disputed territories in Iraq. The PUK describes its goals as self-determination, human rights, democracy a ...
(PUK) and Kurdish President
Massoud Barzani Masoud Barzani (; born 16 August 1946) is a Kurdish politician who has been leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) since 1979, and was President of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq from 2005 to 2017. Early life and career Barzani was bo ...
's
Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iraq The Kurdistan Democratic Party (), usually abbreviated as KDP or PDK, is the ruling party in Iraqi Kurdistan and the senior partner in the Kurdistan Regional Government. It was founded in 1946 in Mahabad in Iranian Kurdistan. The party states ...
(KDP) – tended to "monopolize" power, and competing separately would "secure their own powers" in Baghdad. The
Kurdistan Islamic Union Kurdistan Islamic Union (), colloquially referred to as Yekgirtû, is a Kurdish Islamist party in Iraqi Kurdistan. Leadership and supporters Salahaddin Bahaaddin cofounded the Kurdistan Islamic Union on February 6, 1994. In the first General C ...
(KIU) also said it would compete separately, as it had in December 2005, and rejected a pan-Islamist coalition with the
Islamic Movement of Kurdistan The Kurdistan Islamic Movement (, in the Kurmanji dialect) is a Kurdish Islamist party founded in 1987 by mufti Osman Abdulaziz and several other Kurdish Islamic scholars who were all part of the non-political "Union of Religious Scholars" gro ...
(IMK) and the
Kurdistan Islamic Group The Kurdistan Justice Group (), colloquially called Komell, formerly the Kurdistan Islamic Group (), is a movement in Iraqi Kurdistan established in May 2001 by Ali Bapir, a former leader of the Islamic Movement of Kurdistan and a former depu ...
(IGK). Therefore, Gorran, the KIU and the IGK all three ran in separate lists, while the PUK and KDP ran in a joint "Kurdistani List" together with several minor parties including the Kurdistan Communist Party, Qadir Aziz's
Kurdistan Toilers' Party The Kurdistan Toilers' Party (, also known as Zahmatkeshan) was founded in 1985 by Qadir Ezîz and Ebdulxaliq Zengene and balen abdulla as a splinter of the short-lived alliance ''Kurdistan United Socialist Party'' (HSYK), which had included th ...
and the IMK. Though a mainly Kurdish List, the Kurdistan List also includes the Turkmen Brotherhood In 2005 the
Democratic Patriotic Alliance of Kurdistan The Democratic Patriotic Alliance of Kurdistan (DPAK) sometimes referred to simply as the Kurdistan Alliance (KA) is the name of the electoral coalition first presented as a united Kurdish list in the January 2005 election in Iraq. Elections were ...
had won 21.7% of the votes and 53 out of 275 seats with the
Kurdistan Islamic Union Kurdistan Islamic Union (), colloquially referred to as Yekgirtû, is a Kurdish Islamist party in Iraqi Kurdistan. Leadership and supporters Salahaddin Bahaaddin cofounded the Kurdistan Islamic Union on February 6, 1994. In the first General C ...
winning 1.3% of the votes and 5 seats. In the 2009 Kurdistan general elections the Kurdistani List had won 59 out of 100 Kurdish seats, Gorran winning 25 and the Islamist list of the KIU and IGK winning 13 seats.


Opinion polls

In February 2010 the National Media Center, a government agency conducted a survey among 5,000 Iraqis from 18 different provinces. When people were asked who they would vote for the poll gave the following results: *
State of Law Coalition State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...
: 29.9% *
Iraqi National Movement The Iraqi National Movement (INM) (Arabic language, Arabic: الحركة الوطنية العراقية ''al-Ḥaraka al-Waṭaniya al-Iraqiyya''), more commonly known as the al-Iraqiya List, was an Iraqi political coalition formed to contest the ...
: 21.8% *
National Iraqi Alliance The National Iraqi Alliance (NIA or INA; ), also known as the Watani List, was an Iraqi electoral coalition that contested the 2010 Iraqi legislative election. The Alliance was mainly composed of Shi'a Islamist parties. The alliance was creat ...
: 17.2% *
Kurdistani List The Kurdistan List (), also known as the Kurdistan Alliance or the Brotherhood List, is the name of the electoral coalition that ran in the Kurdistan Regional Government parliamentary elections in Iraqi Kurdistan in July 2009. The Kurdistan List ...
10% *
Iraqi Unity The Unity Alliance of Iraq (Arabic language, Arabic: ائتلاف وحدة العراق ''I’itilaf Wehdat al-Iraq'') commonly known as Iraq's Unity, Iraqi Unity or Wassat is an Iraqi political coalition formed to contest the 2010 Iraqi parliamen ...
: 5% *
Iraqi Accord Front The Iraqi Accord Front or Iraqi Accordance Front (Arabic: جبهة التوافق العراقية ''Jabhet Al-Tawafuq Al-'Iraqiyah'') also known as Tawafuq is an Iraqi Sunni political coalition created on October 26, 2005 by the Iraqi Islamic Pa ...
: 2.7% *Other: 6.3% *No Opinion 4.9% *No Response 2.2% When asking if people would vote or not two-thirds said they would vote. Among Shi'a Muslims 63% said they would vote, among Sunni Muslims this was 58%. 57% of the Arabs said they would vote while 67% of the Kurds said they would vote. Of those asked 47% supported the candidate ban, 38% opposed it and 15% had no opinion. According to the Sadrists, they expected the National Iraqi Alliance to be the largest Shi'a List, winning 70 to 80 seats in the government, where from the Sadr Movement would win at least 35. Spokesmen from Da'awa were skeptical about these claims.


Pre-election controversies


Candidate ban

On 15 January 2010 Iraq's electoral commission banned 499 candidates, mostly Sunni Muslims, from the election due to alleged links with the Ba'ath Party. Several prominent Sunni politicians were among the banned, including Iraqi Front for National Dialogue leader
Saleh al-Mutlaq Saleh Muhammed al-Mutlaq (; born 1 July 1947) is an Iraqi politician who is the head of the Iraqi Front for National Dialogue, the fifth largest political list in Iraq's parliament. From 21 December 2010 to 11 August 2015, he was one of the thre ...
, Iraqi Defence Minister
Qadir Obeidi General Abdulqadir Mohammed Jassim Al-Mafraji ( ; ; born 1947) commonly known as Abdul Qadir Al-Obeidi or Obeidi (, was the 31st Defence Minister of Iraq in the Council of Ministers of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki from June 2006 to December ...
and Iraqi Accordance Front chairman Dhafer al-Ani. Among the banned candidates 216 were former members of the
Ba'ath Party The Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party ( ' ), also known simply as Bath Party (), was a political party founded in Syria by Michel Aflaq, Salah al-Din al-Bitar, and associates of Zaki al-Arsuzi. The party espoused Ba'athism, which is an ideology ...
(including 13 mid-ranking members), 182 were members of the paramilitary
Fedayeen Saddam Fedayeen Saddam () was an Iraqi paramilitary militia Fedayeen organization loyal to the Ba'athist regime of Saddam Hussein. The group's name means "Saddam's Men of Sacrifice". At its peak, they had 30,000 to 40,000 members. The Fedayeen operate ...
and the
Mukhabarat (), is the Arabic term for intelligence, as used by an intelligence agency. In most of the Middle East, the term is colloquially used for secret police agents who spy on civilians. Organizations using the name include: Egypt * General Intelligen ...
(Saddam's intelligence service), a further 105 of them were officers from the Old Iraqi army, including several ex-generals. Among the banned candidates 60% were Sunni Muslims and 40% were Shi'a however all of the banned candidates are members of secular and liberal parties and not a single member of a Sunni or Shi'a religious party was banned. According to Sheikh Abu Risha 7 of the banned candidates were members of his
Anbar Salvation Council Anbar may refer to: Places and jurisdictions Iraq * Anbar (town), near Iraqi capital Baghdad * Al Anbar Governorate, a province of Iraq Elsewhere * Anbar, Iran (disambiguation) * Anbar, Swabi, Pakistan * Anbar, Kocaköy Other uses * Elec ...
and 70 were members of the Iraq Unity list, a major Sunni list led by Abu Risha and Jawad al-Bolani. The electoral commission was criticized for alleged partiality and ties to Shi'a religious parties and some feared this decision will lead to sectarian tensions. Sunni Muslims largely boycotted the January 2005 elections and it was feared they would boycott this election as well, since the dominant Sunni list-the Iraqi National Movement-threatened to boycott the elections if the decision was not reversed. Al-Mutlaq himself said he would resort to the United Nations and the international community if he is banned from the next election calling the decision a political decision "linked to foreign desire". Sheikh Ahmed Abu Risha, head of the Awakening councils threatened he might boycott the 2010 elections as well if the 70 banned candidates of his list were not unbanned. Earlier, Massoud Barzani had threatened Kurds might boycott the elections over the seat allocations. Kurds however decided not to boycott after more seats were allocated to them. Iraqi President
Jalal Talabani Jalal Talabani (; ; 1933 – 3 October 2017) was an Iraqi Kurdish politician who served as the sixth president of Iraq from 2005 to 2014, as well as the president of the Governing Council of Iraq. Talabani was the founder and secretary-gene ...
called on the Supreme Court to settle the dispute over the banned candidates saying: "We should not be unjust with them." American Vice President
Joe Biden Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...
travelled to Iraq on 23 January to try resolve the matters of the election ban. In response on 25 January, Iraq dropped the ban on 59 out of 150 candidates who had appealed their ban. A total of 458 however remained banned from the elections. On 3 February the appeals court has temporarily lifted the ban on the candidates allowing them to run, which the Iraqi government condemned the decision by the court calling it "illegal and unconstitutional". The suspending of the ban is meant to allow the candidates to run, the Supreme Court said they will then review the candidates after the election. The government however ordered the Supreme Court to make their final ruling on the candidates before the election. However out of 511 candidates most had been replaced by their parties (and 59 had been unbanned), only 177 candidates appealed their ban. According to IHEC spokesman Khalid al-Shami only 37 of those appealed their ban correctly, the other 140 remain banned. US Ambassador Christopher Hill said that by lifting the ban the elections would become credible. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki however said they would not allow Hill to go beyond his diplomatic mission and that Iraq would not bow to any US-pressure. He also insisted that the ban on the alleged Ba'athist candidates must be implemented. Maliki called on the countries high court for a final decision and also called for a parliamentary meeting to discuss the issue. Before the start of the campaign on 12 February 2010, the IHEC confirmed that the appeals by banned candidates had been rejected and thus all 456 banned candidates would not be allowed to run for the election. The Iraqi National Movement (al-Iraqiyya list) suspended their election campaign in response.


Boycott

Worker-communist Party of Kurdistan The Worker-communist Party of Kurdistan () is a Marxist political party in Iraqi Kurdistan. The party was established in March 2008 when the Kurdistan branch of the Worker-communist Party of Iraq was formed into a separate party. The groups tha ...
and Worker-communist Party of Iraq boycotted the elections, as in their view, conditions and principles for a fair election were not met.


Election violence

On 13 February, the day the election campaign started, there were several bombings. The first bomb struck a political office of
Saleh al-Mutlaq Saleh Muhammed al-Mutlaq (; born 1 July 1947) is an Iraqi politician who is the head of the Iraqi Front for National Dialogue, the fifth largest political list in Iraq's parliament. From 21 December 2010 to 11 August 2015, he was one of the thre ...
, a second bomb was thrown into a building in West-Baghdad used by Sunni scholars and election candidates, while a third bomb damaged the National Iraqi Alliance's headquarters in Eastern Baghdad, a fourth blast struck the headquarters of the Moderate Movement list, injuring two people, a fifth blast struck a building used by Nehru Mohammed Abdul Karim al-Kasanzani's list, injuring one person. On 15 February,
Abu Omar al-Baghdadi Abu Omar al-Baghdadi (; ; 1964 – 18 April 2010), born Hamid Dawud Mohamed Khalil al-Zawi () was an Iraqi militant who was the Emir of the Islamic militant umbrella organization Mujahideen Shura Council (MSC),Al-Qaeda names mystery man to su ...
the leader of the
Islamic State of Iraq The Islamic State of Iraq (ISI; ') was a Salafi jihadist militant organization that fought the forces of the U.S.-led coalition during the Iraqi insurgency. The organization aimed to overthrow the Iraqi federal government and establish an ...
, an umbrella organisation which includes
al-Qaeda in Iraq Al-Qaeda in Iraq (; AQI), was a Salafi jihadism, Salafi jihadist organization affiliated with al-Qaeda. It was founded on 17 October 2004, and was led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi until its disbandment on 15 October 2006 after he was killed in a targ ...
released an internet message calling for a Sunni boycott against the election. He was quoted as saying: "Sunni participation in this election will certainly lead to the establishment of the principle that Sunnis in Iraq are a minority who have to be ruled by the rejectionists" (a term used by radical Sunnis to describe Shi'a Muslims), he also said that his group would use "primarily military means to prevent these elections". On 16 and 17 February campaign workers for the secular Ahrar party were attacked in Baghdad and Maysan governorates when trying to hang up posters. Also between 14 and 17 February at least four Christians were killed by Sunni insurgents. While on 18 February an al-Qaeda suicide bomber struck a government headquarters in
Ramadi Ramadi ( ''Ar-Ramādī''; also formerly rendered as ''Rumadiyah'' or ''Rumadiya'') is a city in central Iraq, about west of Baghdad and west of Fallujah. It is the capital and largest city of Al Anbar Governorate which shares borders with Syri ...
, al-Anbar, as part of their campaign to paralyze the elections. 26 February four civilians were injured as a massive blast struck Iraq's finance ministry. A car bomb targeted an election convoy for Sunni candidate Ashur Hamid al-Karboul, in Khaldiyah in al-Anbar. A campaign worker and a bystander were killed. On 3 March, two car bombs exploded in the city of
Baquba Baqubah (; BGN: Ba‘qūbah; also spelled Baquba and Baqouba) is the capital of Iraq's Diyala Governorate. The city is located some to the northeast of Baghdad, on the Diyala River. In 2003 it had an estimated population of some 280,000 people ...
, Diyala, killing 33 people and injuring 55. This was one of the deadliest bombings of the year. One of the hardest hit communities during the election period is the Assyrian community. Attacks against the Assyrians began in December in
Mosul Mosul ( ; , , ; ; ; ) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. It is the second largest city in Iraq overall after the capital Baghdad. Situated on the banks of Tigris, the city encloses the ruins of the ...
, Iraq's second largest city. It led to the assassination of over 20 Christians and the bombings of different churches in Mosul. The attacks led to 680 Christian families flying Mosul to
Nineveh Plains Nineveh Plains (, Modern ; ; ) is a region in Nineveh Governorate in Iraq. Located to the north and east of the city Mosul, it is the only Christian-majority region in Iraq and have been a gathering point for Iraqi Christians since 2003. Control o ...
. On election day, Islamist insurgents distributed leaflets in Sunni neighbourhoods of Baghdad warning people not to go to the polls, they mostly used rockets, mortars and explosive-filled plastic bottles hidden under trash to target those who did vote, this was due to a vehicle ban the government had enforced to stop car-bombings. Attacks killed 42 people and wounded at least 110. In Baghdad Katyusha rockets killed at least 4 people and wounded 16 in the neighbourhoods of Qreiat and
al-Hurriya Hurriya or Hurriyya (Arabic, 'freedom') may refer to: Places * Al-Hurriya, Baghdad, a neighborhood in Iraq's capital *Hurriya, a district of Idlib, Syria * Al Hurriya Air Base, a military airbase in Iraq * Camp Hurriya, or Camp Liberty, a former U ...
, while roadside bombs killed 7 people in Baghdad. In Mahmoudiyah, a city near Baghdad, a policeman was killed and 11 people were injured when two mortars struck a polling center. One woman was killed and 36 people were injured during attacks on polling centers in the insurgent stronghold of
Mosul Mosul ( ; , , ; ; ; ) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. It is the second largest city in Iraq overall after the capital Baghdad. Situated on the banks of Tigris, the city encloses the ruins of the ...
. But the largest attack came in Baghdad when a Katyusha rocket hit a flat in Ur neighbourhood, killing 25 people and injuring 20. Non-fatal attacks on election day were reported in
Tikrit Tikrit ( ) is a city in Iraq, located northwest of Baghdad and southeast of Mosul on the Tigris River. It is the administrative center of the Saladin Governorate. In 2012, it had a population of approximately 160,000. Originally created as a f ...
,
Baquba Baqubah (; BGN: Ba‘qūbah; also spelled Baquba and Baqouba) is the capital of Iraq's Diyala Governorate. The city is located some to the northeast of Baghdad, on the Diyala River. In 2003 it had an estimated population of some 280,000 people ...
,
Samarra Samarra (, ') is a city in Iraq. It stands on the east bank of the Tigris in the Saladin Governorate, north of Baghdad. The modern city of Samarra was founded in 836 by the Abbasid caliph al-Mu'tasim as a new administrative capital and mi ...
and
Fallujah Fallujah ( ) is a city in Al Anbar Governorate, Iraq. Situated on the Euphrates, Euphrates River, it is located roughly to the west of the capital city of Baghdad and from the neighboring city of Ramadi. The city is located in the region ...
. According to the
Iraq Body Count Iraq Body Count project (IBC) is a web-based effort to record civilian deaths resulting from the US-led 2003 invasion of Iraq. Included are deaths attributable to coalition and insurgent military action, sectarian violence and criminal violence, ...
, from 12 February (when the campaigning started) until 7 March (election day), at least 228 people were killed. Another 176 people were killed in the period between election day and the release of the final results.


Results


By governorate


Source


Candidate votes


Fraud allegations

Prior to the elections there were already claims that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's list was planning to rig elections. The fact that the government printed 26 million ballots, 35% more than are needed for all eligible voters led to claims by Ayad Allawi and his al-Iraqiiya list that these ballots were going to be used to commit fraud. According to the National Iraqi Alliance al-Maliki was abusing his powers as prime minister by distributing government land and plantations freely to tribal leaders to secure their votes, Maliki was also said to be giving expensive guns with gold emblems on them, to visitors. Ibrahim al-Jaafari's
Islah Islah or Al-Islah (الإصلاح ,إصلاح, ') is an Arabic word, usually translated as "reform", in the sense of "to improve, to better, to put something into a better position, correction, correcting something and removing vice, reworking, ...
party accused the Maliki government of registering 800,000 fabricated names in rural areas and Baghdad so the government could use their names to vote in favour of Maliki while these people do not exist. The Sadr Movement complained that the government was arresting and detaining their supporters in the days prior to the elections to prevent them from voting. Leaders of al-Iraqiyya listed a series of alleged violations by Maliki claiming some of their votes had been removed from boxes and replaced by other ballots. A spokesman from the alliance released this statement: "Insistence in manipulating these elections forces us to question whether the possibility of fraudulent results would make the final results worthless. We will not stand by with our arms crossed," however analysts claimed Allawi might have listed these complaints for tactical reasons. Iraqiyya candidate Inistar Allawi also accused the Kurdistan List of fraud in Kirkuk. On the other hand, the Kurdish Gorran List alleged that Allawi's al-Iraqiya list had committed fraud in the city of Mosul.
Ali al-Adeeb Ali Mohammad Al-Hussein Al-Adeeb is an Iraqi politician and a senior member of the Islamic Dawa Party. In April 2006 he was tipped by the United Iraqi Alliance as a candidate for the post of Prime Minister, after their original choice, Ibrahim Ja ...
, a candidate for Maliki's State of Law Coalition alleged an election official has manipulated election results in favour of a rival candidate. Iraqi Kurdish politician Khalid Shenawi, accused election workers in Arab areas in the city of Kirkuk of manipulating the results in Allawi's favour. Meanwhile, Arab and Turkmen politicians accused the Kurds of stacking voter rolls in their favour. Shenawi said that loudspeakers of mosques were used to encourage people to vote and expressed doubt over the 93% turnout in Kirkuk's Arab districts al-Zab, al-Abbasi, al-Riad. In the Arabic neighbourhood of al-Houija there was even a turnout of 130%. Ala Talabani said the Kurdistani List had submitted 40 notices of appeal against fraud by al-Iraqiya. Turkmen nationalist politician Arshid Al-Salihi, who stood as part of the al-Iraqiya list however claimed they had proof of al-Iraqiyya votes being thrown in the garbage, alleging fraud by the Kurdistan List. However, contradictingly he also claimed that "Everyone who loses in elections accuses their rivals of fraud" in reference to claims by the Kurdistan List. Pro-Western candidate
Mithal al-Alusi Mithal Jamal Hussein Ahmad al-Alusi (; born 23 May 1953) is an Iraqi politician and the leader of the Iraqi Ummah Party. He was elected to the Iraqi Council of Representatives as an independent in the December 2005 election and was once again ...
, whose Mithal al-Alusi List won one seat during last elections for Mithal al-Alusi himself, claimed the elections were rigged against liberals like himself, by
Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
and
Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...
as he lost his seat in parliament. Alusi claimed there were major discrepancies between the vote count according to IHEC and his own monitors. He also claimed village directors prevented women from voting in rural areas. He called on the United States to launch an investigation to the allegedly fixed election results. After an appeal by incumbent Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki a recount of the votes in Baghdad was ordered on 19 April 2010. The recount began on 3 May 2010. On 14 May IHEC announced that after 11,298 ballot boxes had been recounted, there was no sign of fraud or violations.


Analysis

Some analysts argued that a new government would need to have at least a component that represents minority ethnicities in order to try and "heal old sectarian wounds." This would mean excluding Iraqiya could anger its Sunni vote-base and "reinvigorate a Sunni backlash."


Government formation


See also

* National Pact (Lebanon)


References

{{Iraqi elections
Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...
Parliamentary In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
Parliamentary In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
Parliamentary elections in Iraq Election and referendum articles with incomplete results