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Iraq Election 2024 - President

The human rights situation worsened during the year due to increased federal and Kurdistan Regional Government restrictions on fundamental freedoms and civic space. There were intermittent attacks by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and its affiliated cells; sporadic fighting between the Iraqi Security Forces and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria in remote areas; Turkish military operations against Kurdistan Workers Party bases in Iraq; the presence of militias not fully under the control of the government, including Iran-aligned Popular Mobilization Forces units; and sectarian, ethnic, and financially motivated violence.

Significant human rights issues included credible reports of: arbitrary or unlawful killings, including extrajudicial killings; enforced disappearance; torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment or punishment by government officials; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest or detention; arbitrary or unlawful interference with privacy; punishment of family members for offenses allegedly committed by an individual; serious abuses in a conflict, including attacks resulting in civilian deaths and harm; serious restrictions on free expression and media, including violence or threats of violence against journalists, unjustified arrests and prosecutions against journalists, censorship, and existence of criminal libel laws.

There were serious restrictions on internet freedom; substantial interference with the freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association; restrictions on freedom of movement, including forced returns of internally displaced persons to locations where they faced threats to their lives and freedom; refoulement of refugees to a country where they would face torture or persecution, including serious harm such as a threat to life or freedom or other mistreatment that would constitute a separate human rights abuse; serious government corruption; extensive gender-based violence, including domestic violence and other forms of such violence; crimes involving violence or threats of violence targeting members of ethnic minority groups, internally displaced persons, and returnee populations; crimes involving violence or threats of violence targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or intersex persons; trafficking in persons, including forced labor; significant restrictions on workers’ freedom of association; and the existence of the worst forms of child labor.

There were several reports the government or its agents committed arbitrary or unlawful killings, including extrajudicial killings. On September 25, militias from the Iran-aligned and government-affiliated Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) allegedly shot and killed a popular TikTok gay personality and makeup artist Noor Alsaffar in Baghdad. Prior to the shooting, Alsaffar faced online abuse and harassment regarding sexuality and gender.

Extrajudicial killings by unidentified gunmen and politically motivated violence occurred frequently throughout the country. Three senior officials were killed in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region (IKR) in July. Police reported that Mohammed Mirza Sinda, a former senior intelligence official linked to the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), was killed when his car exploded in the city of Zakho in Duhok Province. The Kurdistan Region Security Council declared the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) responsible for the killing; however, representatives of the People’s Defense Forces, the PKK-armed wing, denied PKK’s involvement.

There were credible reports government forces, including Federal Police, the National Security Service (NSS), and the PMF, abused and tortured individuals – particularly Sunni Arabs – during arrest and pretrial detention and after conviction. Former prisoners, detainees, and international human rights organizations documented cases of torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment in detention facilities run by the Ministry of Interior and, to a lesser extent, by the Ministry of Defense.

In December 2023, the Independent High Electoral Commission conducted provincial elections in the 15 provinces of the central and southern regions. Citizens largely accepted the results as legitimate despite reports of alleged corruption, including vote buying, intimidation, and violations in the electoral process. Political Parties and Political Participation: Political parties and coalition blocs tended to organize along either religious or ethnic lines, although some parties crossed sectarian lines. Membership in some political parties conferred special privileges and advantages in employment and education. Election observers called corruption the leading obstacle to establishing an official political party and recounted that many had to pay bribes to electoral officials to ensure approval of their application.

According to a political custom followed after the first legislative elections according to a permanent constitution in Iraq in 2006, the position of presidency of the Iraqi parliament is assigned to Sunnis, while Kurds hold the position of President of the Republic, and Shiites hold the position of Prime Minister. For two decades, the Sunni parties have viewed this position as their political authority, and a symbolic position that guarantees their presence in the political process since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime.

The Speaker of Parliament is supposed to be responsible for the process of legislating laws in the country, but proposing them and voting on them are always subject to the influence of the Shiite forces that have a majority in the House of Representatives. With the arrival of Muhammad Al-Halbousi to the position, in September 2018, the Speaker of Parliament began to be seen as a leadership parallel to the Shiite leaders in the country, after Al-Halbousi presented himself as a strong player in the local arena. Al-Halbousi was elected as a Member of Parliament during the parliamentary session from 2014 to 2018, and served as a member of the Human Rights Committee in 2014-2015, the Finance Committee in 2015-2016, and then Chairman of the Finance Committee in 2016-2017.

While Al-Halbousi (the youngest Speaker of Parliament in the country's history) was described as a manipulative politician and pragmatic negotiator, in his case the position of Speaker of Parliament acquired a more important political dimension, before the man was subjected to a judicial decision that removed him from the dome of Parliament. In November 2023, the Federal Supreme Court in Iraq ruled to terminate Al-Halbousi’s membership after considering a lawsuit that accused him of falsifying the date of MP Laith Al-Dulaimi’s resignation. Al-Halbousi rejected the decision, and said that the court does not have the right to consider the validity of a representative’s membership except after a decision by the House of Representatives. At that time, those close to Al-Halbousi said that the “coordinating framework” did not want the rise of a competing Sunni leadership, while observers tended to believe that Iran shared this path in Iraq.

Sessions to choose a new speaker of Parliament have been postponed several times since November 2023. In a tumultuous session that lasted more than 10 hours in January to choose a speaker for parliament, the “Taqadum” candidate at the time, Shaalan Al-Karim, received 152 votes, compared to 97 votes for Al-Issawi, 48 votes for Al-Mashhadani, 6 votes for the independent representative Amer Abdul-Jabbar, and one vote. By Talal Al-Zubaie. According to the constitution, it takes 50 percent plus one to win the position, and the session was postponed because none of the candidates received enough votes to win in the first round.

On 18 May 2024, after intense competition between prominent candidates and a sharp division between influential political forces, the Iraqi parliament failed to choose its new president. Parliament held a session described as “smooth” to elect a new president, in which 3 candidates competed. Before the start of the election process, Parliament voted to approve extending its legislative term for another 30 days, confirming a decision taken by the Presidency of the Council, according to the official news agency.

As in the first round in January, the second round of voting ended with an inconclusive result, as Salem Al-Issawi received 158 votes, Mahmoud Al-Mashhadani 137 votes, and Amer Abdul-Jabbar 3 votes, while the number of invalid votes reached 13, according to the department’s statement. A total of 311 representatives (out of a total of 329) cast their votes in the first round, which began at four in the afternoon local time in Baghdad.

The Parliament's Media Department said that the procedures for electing the Speaker of Parliament began with the participation of 258 deputies. The winner is supposed to obtain 167 votes (half + one) to secure the position of president. After the second round, the acting Speaker of Parliament, Mohsen Al-Mandalawi, said that he “authorizes the representatives to take a break, after which the decision will be made to go to a third round or to adjourn the session until further notice,” and he continued: “Maybe we will adjourn the session.”

The “Taqaddum” party accused the government of “interfering in the election of the Speaker of Parliament, in violation of the Iraqi Constitution,” as MP Yahya Al-Muhammadi put it. Political sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that extensive contacts were made between the leaders of the political blocs to discuss the appropriate option, and a number of them demanded that the election session be postponed to another date, especially with the intense competition between Al-Issawi and Al-Mashhadani.

Observers explained the close results between the competitors by saying that dozens of representatives rebelled against the agreements of party leaders, especially the Shiite representatives who voted for Al-Issawi at the expense of Al-Mashhadani. A day before the session, the former MP, Mishaan, favored the victory of candidate Salem Al-Issawi over Mahmoud Al-Mashhadani, and said that the latter’s victory opens the door to the return of Nouri Al-Maliki to the position of Prime Minister again.

The political forces held deliberations hours before the session was held to agree on a final candidate, but things went so far as to nominate 4 representatives and leave the matter to the votes of the political blocs. The Arab World News Agency quoted sources as saying that opinions were oscillating between Mahmoud Al-Mashhadani (candidate of the “Progress Alliance - Al-Sadara”) and Salem Al-Issawi (candidate of the “Sovereignty Alliance” led by Khamis Al-Khanjar).” The sources claimed that the division was due to “fears among the Asaib Ahl al-Haq movement, the Al-Hikma Movement, and the Badr Organization regarding Al-Mashhadani assuming the position, and they believe that Al-Issawi has the right to the position.”

The “Taqaddum,” “Al-Sadiqoun,” “Badr,” “State of Law,” and “National Union” blocs, the representatives of Kirkuk Governorate, and the representatives of “Babylon,” led by Rayan Al-Kildani, were supposed to vote in favor of Al-Mashhadani, according to parliamentary sources. The “Turkmen Framework” bloc in Parliament said that it had given its vote to a candidate who “does justice to the Turkmen component and seeks to obtain its legitimate rights, just like the rest of the components.” Azzam Al-Hamdani, spokesman for the Sunni “Azm Alliance” led by MP Muthanna Al-Samarrai, told local media, “The political forces engaged in extensive meetings and contacts before holding the session, and this is normal, as each party wants to gain votes for its candidates for this position... after being limited to Competition for Al-Issawi and Al-Mashhadani.”

The Taqaddam Party, led by Al-Halbousi, had announced its support for Al-Mashhadani’s nomination for the position of Speaker of Parliament. On the eve of the session to select the Speaker of Parliament, candidate Salem Al-Issawi said: “Any president of the parliamentary authority must... preserve the unity of Iraq’s land and people, and not allow, accept, or tolerate any projects that threaten the country’s entity,” referring to his rejection of the Sunni region project. Al-Halbousi faces accusations of supporting him.

For his part, Mahmoud Al-Mashhadani said that he was “concerned about the interests of the Iraqi people,” and pledged “to work to activate and revitalize the oversight role of the House of Representatives and accelerate the wheel of legislation.”