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Iraqi election officials on Wednesday announced preliminary results of Iraq’s parliamentary elections, which showed a few surprises as traditional powers continued to dominate their respective regions.
Led by the Reconstruction and Transformation Coalition Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani won the most seats in 8 of the 18 provinces. BaghdadNajaf, Qadisiyah, KarbalaMuthanna, Maysan, Dhi Qar, and Babil.
While al-Sudani’s faction made a strong showing, no single faction won a comfortable victory that would allow it to form a government independently, meaning that forming the next government will require bargaining between the strongest factions to gain a majority.
In the last several elections in Iraq, the group that won the most seats has not been able to field its preferred candidate.
This also includes the last parliamentary election in 2021, when the Sadrist movement, led by an influential Shia cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr Won the largest number of seats, but later withdrew after failed talks on forming a government amid a standoff with rival Shia parties. Sadr has since boycotted the political system and called on his supporters to boycott this year’s elections.
Election officials said the final turnout in the election was 56% of registered voters. This includes both a general vote on Tuesday and a special vote held on Sunday for members of the military and security forces and internally displaced people living in camps.
Turnout was low in areas with large numbers of Sadr supporters, including Baghdad and Najaf.
In general, Shia forces won seats in Shia-majority provinces. sunni As expected, the armies won in Sunni-majority provinces and Kurdish forces prevailed in Kurdish-majority provinces.
The biggest surprise came in Nineveh, a predominantly Sunni Arab province, where the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) won the most seats, an unexpected change for observers. Meanwhile, in Diyala province, where there is a large Kurdish minority, no Kurdish candidate won a seat for the first time since 2005.
Baghdad, Nineveh and the Southern Province of Basra are the provinces with the most seats: 71 in Baghdad, 34 in Nineveh and 25 in Basra. Al-Sudani’s coalition won in Baghdad, the KDP in Nineveh, and the Tassim list, led by Basra governor Assad al-Eidani, won in Basra.
In Kirkuk, where clashes broke out between political party supporters ahead of the election that left two police officers dead, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) came in first, followed by Sunni former parliament speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi’s Taqaddum party in second and the Turkmen Party in third.
Al-Sudani’s supporters celebrated in Baghdad shortly after the preliminary results were announced.
Hundreds of supporters arrived in central Tahrir Square in a convoy of their cars and motorcycles and started dancing and singing.
“He’s number one in Iraq, and not just in Baghdad,” said Hamid Hamid, a participant from Baghdad.
Al-Sudani came to power in 2022 with the support of a group of pro-Iranian parties, but has since tried to balance Iraq’s relations with Tehran and Washington. He has established himself as a pragmatist focused on improving public services.
While al-Sudani’s first term in office has seen relative stability in Iraq, it also faces challenges. US pressure has intensified on the Iraqi government to curb the influence of Iran-aligned armed groups, some of which had candidates in Tuesday’s vote. Militia-linked parties performed strongly in some areas, although they were not the top vote-getters nationwide.
Only one prime minister has served more than one term since the US-led invasion in 2003 that overthrew the country’s longtime ruler Saddam Hussein.