Iraqi forces, displaced people vote early ahead of election

BAGHDAD: Members of Iraq’s security forces and its internally displaced population headed to the polls in early voting on Sunday ahead of upcoming parliamentary elections.
Polls opened at 0400 GMT for members of the armed forces, who account for 1.3 million of the more than 21 million eligible voters and would be deployed for security purposes on election day, according to the state Iraqi News Agency.
More than 26,500 internally displaced people are also eligible for early voting.
The November 11 elections will be the sixth since the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq that toppled Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein.
More than 7,740 candidates, nearly a third of them women, are running for the 329-seat parliament.
An old electoral law, which parliament revived in 2023, will apply to the elections, with many seeing it as favoring larger parties.
While around 70 independents won seats in the 2021 election, only 75 independents are contesting in the upcoming ballot.
Observers fear that turnout might dip below the 41-percent record low of 2021, reflecting voters’ apathy and skepticism in a country marked by entrenched leadership, mismanagement, and endemic corruption.
Influential Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr has urged his followers to boycott what he described as a “flawed election.”
Since the US-led invasion, Iraq’s once-oppressed Shiite majority has dominated politics.
Influenctial Shiite figures including former Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki and cleric Ammar Al-Hakim will play a central role in the election, as well as several pro-Iran armed groups.
Current Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, elected in 2022 backed by pro-Iranian parties, is seeking a second term and is expected to secure a sizeable bloc.
By convention in post-invasion Iraq, a Shiite Muslim holds the powerful post of prime minister and a Sunni that of parliament speaker, while the largely ceremonial presidency goes to a Kurd.
The next prime minister will be voted in by whichever coalition can negotiate allies to become the biggest parliamentary bloc.