SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Iraq’s parliamentary election campaign has begun since Thursday, according to the country’s electoral commission.
Iraq’s independent high electoral commission (IHEC) said in a communique that the approved candidates could start election campaign from Thursday.
“Candidates will be able to do campaigns until 6 a.m. on October 7,” it added.
As many as 3,243 candidates will be competing to win a seat in Iraq’s council of representatives.
Iraq is scheduled to hold early parliamentary elections on October 10, which was one of the main demands of anti-government protesters who organized months of mass demonstrations beginning in October 2020.
The vote is held every four years, but anti-government protesters demanded early elections.
Iraqi President Barham Salih in November ratified a new election law aimed at giving political independents a better chance of winning seats in parliament.
The new law changes each of the country’s 18 provinces into several electoral districts and prevents parties from running on unified lists, which has in the past helped them easily sweep all the seats in a specific province. Instead, the seats would go to whoever gets the most votes in the electoral districts.
Iraq’s Parliament passed the final version of the new law in November despite objections from some political parties.
The IHEC said more than 25 million people are eligible to vote in the parliamentary elections
