Parliamentary elections were held in Iraq on 30 April 2014.
The elections decided the 328 members of the Council of Representatives who will in turn
elect the Iraqi President and Prime Minister.
Electoral system The open list form of party-list proportional
representation, using the governorates as the constituencies, is the electoral system
used.
The counting system has been changed slightly from the largest remainder method method to
the modified Sainte-Laguë method due to a ruling by the Supreme Court of Iraq that the
previous method discriminated against smaller parties.
Seven "compensatory" seats that were awarded at the national level to those parties whose
national share of the vote wasn't reflected in the seats won at the governorate level
have been allocated to individual governorates.
Eight seats remain reserved for minority groups at the national level: five for Assyrians
and one each for Mandaeans, Yezidis, and Shabaks.
Campaign The campaign was expected to focus on competition
within the three main religious and ethnic communities: Shi'ite Arabs, Sunni Arabs and
Kurds.
Shi'ite Arabs were split between the Prime Minister's State of Law Coalition, the Sadrist
Al-Ahrar Bloc, and the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq backed Al Muwatin Coalition.
The former secular/Sunni Iraqiya coalition was split between Usama al-Nujayfi's Muttahidoon
Coalition for Reform, Ayad Allawi's Al-Wataniya Coalition, and Saleh al-Mutlaq's Al-Arabiya
Coalition.
The two prominent Kurdish parties, Masoud Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party and Jalal
Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, were joined by a third Kurdish party, the Movement
for Change headed by Nawshirwan Mustafa.
Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission approved 276 political entities to run in
the elections.
Political entities appeared on the ballot as part of a "coalition" and under the constitution
of Iraq the head of the largest coalition has the first call to become Prime Minister.
However, in a precedent set following the 2010 election, a revised coalition can be
formed following the election.
This reduces the incentive for parties to form coalitions prior to the election.
Seat allocation Prior to the elections, the parliament decided
to expand from 325 to 328.
As with the 2010 elections, 8 seats were reserved for ethnic and religious minorities.
Unlike previous elections, there were no compensatory seats; reserved seats that previously favorited
big-time parties.
Conduct As members of the security forces voted on
Monday 28 April, six different polling stations were hit by suicide bombers, leading to at
least 27 deaths.
Insurgent group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has threatened violence against Sunni
Muslims who vote in the election.
Results National results
The IHEC confirmed the results on 25 May.
The official number of seats is as follows:
Results by governorate Al Anbar Governorate
Arbil Governorate Babil Governorate
Baghdad Governorate Basra Governorate
Dhi Qar Governorate Diyala Governorate
Dohuk Governorate Karbala Governorate
Kirkuk Governorate Maysan Governorate
Muthanna Governorate Najaf Governorate
Nineveh Governorate Al-Qādisiyyah Governorate
Saladin Governorate Sulaymaniyah Governorate
Wasit Governorate Candidate votes
Government formation The first sitting of the new parliament on
1 July ended after Kurdish and Sunni Arab MPs boycotted the session and caused its adjournment
because of a lack of a quorum.
The next sitting on 13 July to choose a president, prime minister and speaker brought about a
consensus for the post of speaker after MP Mohammed al-Karbooli announced that Salim
al-Jabouri was the candidate.
The government formation was also affected by most international, and some domestic,
calls to replace the al-Maliki amidst the 2014 Northern Iraq offensive, while Kurdish
control of some northern areas during the fighting and a promise for an Iraqi Kurdish
independence referendum, 2014 led to rifts with the central government.
References