2010 Iraqi parliamentary election

The necessary election law was only passed on 8 November 2009, and the UN Mission in Iraq, which is helping with the elections, estimated that it needed 90 days to plan for the election. Iraqi Vice President Tariq Al-Hashimi vetoed the election law on 18 November 2009, delaying the election, which was originally scheduled for 21 January. The Iraqi cabinet approved a draft elections law in September 2009. However, it took two months and ten delays for the law to pass in the Council of Representatives. The main areas of dispute concerned the "open list" electoral system and the voters roll in Kirkuk Governorate, which Arab and Turkmen parties alleged had been manipulated by the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq. The move was initially supported by parliamentarians from ISCI, and the most senior Iraqi Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, warned that failure to adopt the open list system would have "negative impacts on the democratic process" and would reduce turnout and aides said he may call for a boycott of the polls if closed lists were used again. In the end, all parties except for the Kurdistani Alliance agreed to support open lists which was adopted. When put to a vote the Kurdish MPs walked out, leaving the parliament without a quorum. The final law said that the results in Kirkuk - and other governorates where the rolls were deemed "dubious" - would be provisional, subject to review within the first year by a committee formed out of the electoral commission, parliament, government and UNAMI, which could cancel fraudulent ballots. The law was passed by a vote of 141 to 54, with 80 members absent. As with the December 2005 election, seats will be allocated by governorate with additional "compensatory" seats allocated to those parties whose national share of the vote isn't reflected in the seats won at the governorate level. The votes of Iraqis living abroad would originally have been counted in the compensatory seats, which were reduced from 45 seats to 16 and eight of these 16 seats were allocated to specific national minorities – five for Iraqi Christians and one each for Yazidis, Shabak and Mandaeans. Sunni Arab parliamentarian Saleh al-Mutlaq said 30 seats should be allocated to Iraqis abroad to reflect their numbers. President Jalal Talabani also supported the increase to 15%, after receiving a letter from Kurdish regional MPs saying their allies from minority groups would be unfairly treated. In the event President Talabani and Vice-President Adel Abdul Mahdi signed the law despite their concerns, but Hashimi followed through his threat and vetoed it. Parliament asked the Supreme Federal Court for advice, and it issued a statement saying that "all Iraqis, whether they live in the country or outside its borders, should be represented in the parliament." There was some confusion over this statement with the head of the legal affairs committee interpreted this as annulling the veto. However, Ayad al-Samarrai, the parliamentary speaker said the statement was not binding on parliament because it was advice rather a ruling in response to a complaint. Parliament therefore met to consider the law again. Hundreds of supporters of the Prime Minister held demonstrations against the veto in Najaf, Basra and Wasit. The President of Iraqi Kurdistan, Massoud Barzani, then threatened to boycott the election if the representation of the three provinces in Kurdistan wasn't increased. The provinces had only gained three of the 77 additional seats. When the Iraqi Parliament met again they amended the law to provide that Iraqis abroad would vote in the governorate they lived before they left the country. The number of seats per governorate was then changed to increase all governorates by a fixed 2.8% over the 2005 population figures – meaning Kurdish areas got more seats but Sunni Arab areas got fewer. Analysts said Hashemi had "played poker and lost" and an MP from a rival Sunni Arab party said he should go and apologize to the governorates that had lost out. Tribal leaders in the Sunni Arab city of Tikrit threatened to call for a poll boycott if the amended law went through and Hashemi said he would veto again. Internally displaced people will only be allowed to vote where their ration card was issued, a provision that Taha Daraa, MP in Diyala, said discriminated against them and was unconstitutional. He called on the constitutional court to strike down the provision. The head of the IHEC electoral directorate, Haydar Al Abboudi, said he hoped to announce the results of elections three days later. ==Coalitions==

The United Iraqi Alliance, made up primarily of religious Shi'ite parties, won 128 out of 275 seats in the previous election and was the largest party in the parliament. The list split into two lists for this election: the State of Law Coalition of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the National Iraqi Alliance, which included most of the other parties. In total 160 regular parties as well as 36 independents and 10 minority parties and candidates took part in the election, see here for a full list of the participants. National Iraqi Alliance (NIA) – List 316 The National Iraqi Alliance (NIA or INA) is a coalition of mainly Shi'a parties. It was first mooted in August 2009 and is made up of the principal remaining components of the United Iraqi Alliance: The Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI) and affiliated Badr Organization, the Sadr Movement, Ex-Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari (who became the group's chairman) and his National Reform Trend (Islah), the Islamic Fadhila Party and an Islamic Dawa Party – Iraq Organisation (Tanzim al-Iraq) breakaway faction: the Islamic Dawa Party – Domestic Faction (Tanzim al-Dakhli) headed by Abdul Karim al-Anizi. ISCI was reported to have offered to split the coalition's seats four ways: 25% to ISCI and Badr, 25% to the Sadrists, 25% to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Islamic Dawa Party and 25% to minor parties and independents. However, Maliki demanded half the seats – reflecting the results of the Iraqi governorate elections of 2009, which were won by Maliki's State of Law Coalition – and a guarantee of another term as prime minister. He also wanted Sunni Arab parties like the Awakening movements to be included as primary members of the coalition to form what his spokesman termed "a truly national alliance". Despite its religious Shi'a character, the alliance claims to represent all of Iraq and it also includes some secular parties such as former Oil Minister Ahmad Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress and Sunni parties such as Hamid Hayes' Tribes of Iraq Coalition, an al-Anbar Awakening Council splinter group. State of Law Coalition (SLC) – List 337 After negotiations between Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Ammar al-Hakim's Islamic Supreme Council for the National Iraqi Alliance broke down, al-Maliki decided to run with the State of Law Coalition (SLC or SLA) which was built around his Islamic Dawa Party for the 2009 local elections. The State of Law Coalition's largest component are members of al-Maliki's Dawa party and members of the incumbent al-Maliki led government. Other major notable components are the Islamic Dawa Party – Tanzim al-Iraq and Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani's "Independent Bloc". While it is a mainly Shi'a alliance, State of Law is officially a national, non-sectarian, multi-ethnic coalition. It includes several minor Sunni, Christian, Kurdish and Turkmen parties and independent candidates such as Abbas al-Bayati's Islamic Union of Iraqi Turkoman and Sheikh Ali Hatem al-Suleiman's Anbar Salvation National Front, an Anbar Awakening Council splinter group. The State of Law Coalition was the winner of the 2009 Iraqi governorate elections, where they became the largest list, winning 126 out of 440 local seats and becoming the largest list in 8 of the 9 Shi'a provinces and Baghdad. al-Iraqiyya (INM) – List 333 The Iraqi National Movement (INM), more commonly known as al-Iraqiyya, is the main secular, non-sectarian and Nationalist list, it is headed by former prime minister Ayad Allawi. In the 2005 election Allawi's Iraqi National List won 8% of the vote, winning votes among secular Shi'a and Sunnis. In 2009 Vice-President Tariq al-Hashimi left the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party (which was at the time, Iraq's main Sunni party), and launched a new party called the Renewal List. Hashimi's party joined the al-Iraqiyya. Also joining was the Iraqi National Dialogue Front (Hiwar) led by former Ba'ath Party member Saleh al-Mutlak. The list includes most of the country's main Sunni-based, Nationalist parties: al-Hadba, al-Hal, ex-President Ghazi al-Yawer's The Iraqis, Adnan Pachachi's Assembly of Independent Democrats and Deputy Prime Minister Rafi al-Issawi's party, as well as the country's largest Turkmen party, the Iraqi Turkmen Front. In January 2010 the De-Baathification Commission barred al-Mutlak from the election due to his previous membership of the Iraqi Ba'ath Party. The al-Iraqiyya List threatened to boycott the election unless the decision was reversed. al-Tawafuq – List 338 The Iraqi Accord Front, more commonly known as al-Tawafuq is a Sunni Islamist list which was the main Sunni coalition in 2005, winning 15% and 44 seats as an alliance between the Iraqi Islamic Party, the General Council for the People of Iraq (Iraqi People's Gathering) and the Iraqi National Dialogue Council. Since then the Iraqi National Dialogue Council left the alliance and after disappointing results in 2009, the Iraqi Islamic Party's leader Tariq al-Hashemi resigned from his position and left the party to create his own party and join al-Iraqiyya. The alliance still includes several independent candidates and the Sunni Islamist, Turkmen Justice Party. In 2009 Tawafuq was still the largest Sunni list with 32 seats however they received less than 25% of the votes they received in 2005 and lost in their main stronghold, the al-Anbar governorate. Meanwhile, the parties which would later form al-Iraqiyya won over 70 seats. Iraq's Unity – List 348 Ahmed Abu Risha, the head of the Awakening movement party that won the most seats in the 2009 Al Anbar governorate election, formed a coalition with Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani's Iraqi Constitutional Party and Ahmed Abdul Ghafour al-Samarrai, chief of Sunni Endowment Office, called the Unity Alliance of Iraq, also known as Iraq's Unity or Iraqi Unity. Kurdistani List – List 372 and other Kurdish Lists The Kurdistan List called for a single pan-Kurdish list, including the Islamist parties and the opposition Gorran Movement, which had gained a quarter of the seats in the Iraqi Kurdistan legislative election of 2009. However, the Gorran Movement said the two main Kurdistani Alliance parties – the Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Kurdish President Massoud Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iraq (KDP) – tended to "monopolize" power, and competing separately would "secure their own powers" in Baghdad. The Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) also said it would compete separately, as it had in December 2005, and rejected a pan-Islamist coalition with the Islamic Movement of Kurdistan (IMK) and the Kurdistan Islamic Group (IGK). Therefore, Gorran, the KIU and the IGK all three ran in separate lists, while the PUK and KDP ran in a joint "Kurdistani List" together with several minor parties including the Kurdistan Communist Party, Qadir Aziz's Kurdistan Toilers' Party and the IMK. Though a mainly Kurdish List, the Kurdistan List also includes the Turkmen Brotherhood In 2005 the Democratic Patriotic Alliance of Kurdistan had won 21.7% of the votes and 53 out of 275 seats with the Kurdistan Islamic Union winning 1.3% of the votes and 5 seats. In the 2009 Kurdistan general elections the Kurdistani List had won 59 out of 100 Kurdish seats, Gorran winning 25 and the Islamist list of the KIU and IGK winning 13 seats. ==Opinion polls==

In February 2010 the National Media Center, a government agency conducted a survey among 5,000 Iraqis from 18 different provinces. When people were asked who they would vote for the poll gave the following results: • State of Law Coalition: 29.9% • Iraqi National Movement: 21.8% • National Iraqi Alliance: 17.2% • Kurdistani List 10% • Iraqi Unity: 5% • Iraqi Accord Front: 2.7% • Other: 6.3% • No Opinion 4.9% • No Response 2.2% When asking if people would vote or not two-thirds said they would vote. Among Shi'a Muslims 63% said they would vote, among Sunni Muslims this was 58%. 57% of the Arabs said they would vote while 67% of the Kurds said they would vote. Of those asked 47% supported the candidate ban, 38% opposed it and 15% had no opinion. ==Pre-election controversies==

Candidate ban On 15 January 2010 Iraq's electoral commission banned 499 candidates, mostly Sunni Muslims, from the election due to alleged links with the Ba'ath Party. however all of the banned candidates are members of secular and liberal parties and not a single member of a Sunni or Shi'a religious party was banned. According to Sheikh Abu Risha 7 of the banned candidates were members of his Anbar Salvation Council and 70 were members of the Iraq Unity list, a major Sunni list led by Abu Risha and Jawad al-Bolani. Sheikh Ahmed Abu Risha, head of the Awakening councils threatened he might boycott the 2010 elections as well if the 70 banned candidates of his list were not unbanned. Kurds however decided not to boycott after more seats were allocated to them. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani called on the Supreme Court to settle the dispute over the banned candidates saying: "We should not be unjust with them." American Vice President Joe Biden travelled to Iraq on 23 January to try resolve the matters of the election ban. In response on 25 January, Iraq dropped the ban on 59 out of 150 candidates who had appealed their ban. A total of 458 however remained banned from the elections. On 3 February the appeals court has temporarily lifted the ban on the candidates allowing them to run, which the Iraqi government condemned the decision by the court calling it "illegal and unconstitutional". Boycott Worker-communist Party of Kurdistan and Worker-communist Party of Iraq boycotted the elections, as in their view, conditions and principles for a fair election were not met. Election violence On 13 February, the day the election campaign started, there were several bombings. The first bomb struck a political office of Saleh al-Mutlaq, a second bomb was thrown into a building in West-Baghdad used by Sunni scholars and election candidates, while a third bomb damaged the National Iraqi Alliance's headquarters in Eastern Baghdad, a fourth blast struck the headquarters of the Moderate Movement list, injuring two people, a fifth blast struck a building used by Nehru Mohammed Abdul Karim al-Kasanzani's list, injuring one person. Also between 14 and 17 February at least four Christians were killed by Sunni insurgents. While on 18 February an al-Qaeda suicide bomber struck a government headquarters in Ramadi, al-Anbar, as part of their campaign to paralyze the elections. 26 February four civilians were injured as a massive blast struck Iraq's finance ministry. A car bomb targeted an election convoy for Sunni candidate Ashur Hamid al-Karboul, in Khaldiyah in al-Anbar. A campaign worker and a bystander were killed. On 3 March, two car bombs exploded in the city of Baquba, Diyala, killing 33 people and injuring 55. This was one of the deadliest bombings of the year. One of the hardest hit communities during the election period is the Assyrian community. Attacks against the Assyrians began in December in Mosul, Iraq's second largest city. It led to the assassination of over 20 Christians and the bombings of different churches in Mosul. The attacks led to 680 Christian families flying Mosul to Nineveh Plains. On election day, Islamist insurgents distributed leaflets in Sunni neighbourhoods of Baghdad warning people not to go to the polls, they mostly used rockets, mortars and explosive-filled plastic bottles hidden under trash to target those who did vote, this was due to a vehicle ban the government had enforced to stop car-bombings. Attacks killed 42 people and wounded at least 110. In Baghdad Katyusha rockets killed at least 4 people and wounded 16 in the neighbourhoods of Qreiat and al-Hurriya, while roadside bombs killed 7 people in Baghdad. ==Results==

By governorate Source Candidate votes Fraud allegations supporters Prior to the elections there were already claims that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's list was planning to rig elections. The fact that the government printed 26 million ballots, 35% more than are needed for all eligible voters led to claims by Ayad Allawi and his al-Iraqiiya list that these ballots were going to be used to commit fraud. Iraqiyya candidate Inistar Allawi also accused the Kurdistan List of fraud in Kirkuk. On the other hand, the Kurdish Gorran List alleged that Allawi's al-Iraqiya list had committed fraud in the city of Mosul. Ali al-Adeeb, a candidate for Maliki's State of Law Coalition alleged an election official has manipulated election results in favour of a rival candidate. Iraqi Kurdish politician Khalid Shenawi, accused election workers in Arab areas in the city of Kirkuk of manipulating the results in Allawi's favour. Meanwhile, Arab and Turkmen politicians accused the Kurds of stacking voter rolls in their favour. Shenawi said that loudspeakers of mosques were used to encourage people to vote and expressed doubt over the 93% turnout in Kirkuk's Arab districts al-Zab, al-Abbasi, al-Riad. In the Arabic neighbourhood of al-Houija there was even a turnout of 130%. Ala Talabani said the Kurdistani List had submitted 40 notices of appeal against fraud by al-Iraqiya. Turkmen nationalist politician Arshid Al-Salihi, who stood as part of the al-Iraqiya list however claimed they had proof of al-Iraqiyya votes being thrown in the garbage, alleging fraud by the Kurdistan List. However, contradictingly he also claimed that "Everyone who loses in elections accuses their rivals of fraud" in reference to claims by the Kurdistan List. After an appeal by incumbent Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki a recount of the votes in Baghdad was ordered on 19 April 2010. On 14 May IHEC announced that after 11,298 ballot boxes had been recounted, there was no sign of fraud or violations. ==Analysis==

Some analysts argued that a new government would need to have at least a component that represents minority ethnicities in order to try and "heal old sectarian wounds." This would mean excluding Iraqiya could anger its Sunni vote-base and "reinvigorate a Sunni backlash." ==Government formation==