Profound division in the parliament over the election law

Shafaq News / The Parliamentary Bloc "Alliance Towards reform" (Saairun) revealed, on Monday, that there are deep divisions between the political blocs on the new draft of the election law, indicating that political forces put forward five different proposals.

"The political forces are divided over five proposals. Each of them has a proposal on the electoral law," said MP for Saairon Sadiq Al-Sulaiti to Shafaq News Agency, "there are 15 remaining articles related to the multiplicity of electoral districts, their administrative borders, the number of voters and candidates for each electoral district."

He added, "the Kurdish forces want Iraq to be a single constituency, while the Sunni forces want the governorate to be a single constituency.

A part of the Shiite forces wants to divide the province into three electoral districts," noting, "Saairun wish to have multiple constituencies within the governorate, as one candidate shall be elected from each constituency."

Since the protests began in October 2019, protesters in the Iraqi governorates are calling for new election laws to increase the access of independent to the parliament and not limit the candidates of parties that have dominated the political scene since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003.

The Iraqi parliament had passed part of a new election law late last year under the pressure of unprecedented popular protests.

However, disputes prevented the completion of the legislation of the law, as it revolved around the adoption of multiple constituencies or a single constituency in each governorate, as well as the method of direct voting or via lists.