SULAIMANI (ESTA) — The Iraqi electoral commission announced the final results for the October parliamentary election on Tuesday, with Kurds securing 17 seats in Baghdad and the disputed territories.
Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) said voter turnout was 44% during the parliamentary election held on October 10.
The turnout slightly increased from preliminary results, which the commission placed at 43%. In the last election in 2018, total turnout was 44.5%.
The IHEC said 9,629,601 people out of 22,116,368 eligible voters cast their ballots in the election.
There were 721,979 spoilt votes, it added.
According to the final results of the election, Kurds have won six seats in Kirkuk province.
The Kurdish parties have also secured eight seats in Nineveh and three more seats in Saladin, Diyala and Baghdad.
The movement of Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr made gains in the ports, while some pro-Iranian Shia factions lost support, and their backers have launched protests claiming election fraud.
The big winner in the 329-seat parliament was the movement of Sadr. The big loser was al-Fateh Alliance, the political arm of Hashid al-Shaabi.
Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi is not running for re-election, but negotiations after the vote could yet see him get a second term. Kadhimi, who is viewed as friendly to the West, has no party to back him.
