The pace of protests increased in front of the Iraqi Parliament building, in protest against the approval of amendments to the Parliament, provincial and district elections law in accordance with the “Saint Lego” law, which was adopted for the first time in 2014, which sparked controversy by activists, independent representatives, and opponents, who consider the law a separation according to the size of powers. The window, by restoring the single-circuit system, which adopts the electoral divisor 1.7 in the “Saint-Lego” system, in reference to the French mathematician Andre Saint-Lego in 1912.
The session witnessed complete chaos due to the objection of most of the independent deputies, who tried to obstruct the vote, after the State Administration Coalition, which represents the coordination framework, the Sunni blocs and the Kurdish blocs, specifically the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union, managed to secure a quorum.
Verbal altercations and stampedes took place inside the dome of the parliament, which prompted Parliament Speaker Muhammad al-Halbousi to ask the security men to protect the parliament and forcibly remove the protesters.
Surprisingly, the protests, which are likely to spread, have moved to include various Iraqi governorates. In Dhi Qar Governorate, the demonstrators returned the sit-in tents to protest against the electoral amendments, set up sit-in tents, closed the streets leading to the square with concrete barriers, and burned car tires, announcing the expansion of their sit-in.
The demonstrators of Al-Haboubi Square in the city of Nasiriyah announced the expansion of their open sit-in.
It is expected that Iraq will witness movements from the Sadrist movement in protest against the approval of the electoral law, at a time when the security and military forces have strengthened their presence in the capital, Baghdad, and in various provinces.
The new law is considered a return to the 2018 law, which was rejected by the protest movement that took place in Iraq in the fall of 2019, and the protesters succeeded at that time in achieving the demand for a new election law that allowed independent candidates to win, as the independents managed in the 2021 elections to win about 70 seats out of 329. .
The new amendments aim to distribute the votes of the voters to the electoral seats in the multi-seat constituencies, and to reduce the resulting defects between the asymmetry in the votes and the number of seats obtained. This mechanism is usually used in the distribution of votes in countries that follow the proportional system in dividing the votes of alliances, which gives an opportunity for small parties to win, as the electoral divider relied on the number 1.4, but the law or amendment adopted in Iraq is based on the number 1.9 instead of 1.4, which exacerbates The fortunes of major political parties and alliances at the expense of independents.
Riyad Mansour (Oman) @riyadmansour