During the few months that the “October revolution” 2019 will have lasted, on the sit-ins in Baghdad and the cities of the Shiite South, tens of thousands of Iraqis demanded the holding of early legislative elections. The organization of this election, Sunday, October 10, six months ahead of schedule and a new electoral law more favorable to independent candidates, is one of the few promises made to the demonstrators that the Prime Minister, Mustafa has honored. Al-Kadhimi. This protest of unprecedented magnitude within the Shiite majority had shaken the power. But the change so much hoped for by the “October revolutionaries”, determined to bring down a political system undermined by sectarianism and corruption, and dominated by Iran-backed Shiite Islamist parties, may not be forthcoming. you.
In a riot of campaign spending, promises of jobs and services, the parties in power set in motion their electoral machines and their patronage networks, and for some their militias, to mobilize their base. Faced with them, the protest movement, weakened by a campaign of assassinations blamed on pro-Iranian armed factions, struggles to make itself heard among an electorate won by apathy and tempted by abstention, especially among young people – 60% of the 40 million inhabitants are under 25 years old. The nine parties born in its wake are calling for a state based on citizenship and state control of arms. They are divided on strategy – four have called for a boycott of the ballot – and novice candidates who campaign do so without resources or networks, and sometimes under threat.
“The basic requirements for holding democratic and fair elections are not met. The money is used by ruling Islamist parties to make election promises. There is a flagrant violation of political rights: manifesting or expressing an opinion that contradicts them exposes you to death, exile, intimidation and threats ”, justifies Hussein Al-Ghoraibi, secretary general of the Beit Al-Madani party (“National House”), who has been living in hiding since his house was targeted, in September 2020, by an explosive device. Nassiriya’s 34-year-old lawyer has lost dozens of friends in the crackdown on the protest, which has left more than 600 dead. Dozens of leaders have since been assassinated, others have gone into exile.
“Change the system from the inside”
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