December 2005 Iraqi parliamentary election
Iraq
15 December 2005
All 275 seats in the Council of Representatives
138 seats needed for a majority
PartyLeader % Seats +/–
UIA Ibrahim al-Jaafari 41.19 128 −12
DPAK Masoud Barzani 21.67 53 −22
Tawafuq Tariq al-Hashimi 15.09 44 New
INL Ayad Allawi 8.02 25 −15
INDF Saleh al-Mutlaq 4.10 11 New
KIU Salahaddin Bahaaddin 1.29 5 New
Risalyun 1.19 2 New
RLB Misha'an al-Juburi 1.07 3 +2
ITF Saadeddin Arkej 0.72 1 −2
Rafidain List Yonadam Kanna 0.39 1 0
Mithal al-Alusi Mithal al-Alusi 0.26 1 New
Yazidi Movement Amin Farhan Jejo 0.18 1 +1
This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
Most voted-for party by governorate
Prime Minister before Prime Minister-designate
Ibrahim al-Jaafari
UIA		 Nouri al-Maliki
UIA
Iraqis in the predominantly Sunni city of Husaybah, wait in lines to vote, during the national election, December 15. Just a few weeks earlier, Soldiers and Marines battled insurgents in this city, located along the Syrian border.
Iraqis wait in line to vote

Parliamentary elections were held in Iraq on 15 December 2005, following the approval of a new constitution in a referendum of 15 October.

Electoral system

The elections took place under a list system, whereby voters chose from a list of parties and coalitions. 230 seats were apportioned among Iraq's 18 governorates based on the number of registered voters in each as of the January 2005 elections, including 59 seats for Baghdad Governorate.[1] The seats within each governorate were allocated to lists through a system of Proportional Representation. An additional 45 "compensatory" seats were allocated to those parties whose percentage of the national vote total (including out of country votes) exceeds the percentage of the 275 total seats that they have been allocated. Women were required to occupy 25% of the 275 seats.[2]

The change in the voting system gave more weight to Arab Sunni voters, who made up most of the voters in several provinces. It was expected that these provinces would thus return mostly Sunni Arab representatives, after most Sunnis boycotted the previous election.

Parties and coalitions

The deadline for registering parties and coalitions closed on 28 October. The Electoral Commission announced that 228 lists had been registered, including 21 coalitions.

The emerging Iraqi political scene has been marked by groups of established parties running on joint lists, often grouped on sectarian or ethnic grounds. These lists are not necessarily stable, as the parties sharing a list may be past or present rivals; the situation will be even more complicated for the December 2005 election because parties can form different alliances in different governorates. The landscape is currently fluid; what follows is a list of some of the more important parties and coalitions, with a focus on alliances that have shifted since the January 2005 election.

United Iraqi Alliance (#555)

This coalition, dominated by Shi'ite parties, was formed to contest the January 2005 election with the blessing of Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most senior Shi'ite cleric based in Iraq. It won the most votes in that election and became the senior partner in the coalition government that ran Iraq for most of 2005. The UIA's main components were:

In advance of the December 2005 elections, Moqtada al-Sadr's party chose to join the Alliance. However, the Iraqi National Congress and Iraqi Hezbollah left the Alliance to form their own lists.

In a blow to the Alliance, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani announced that he would not back any particular party for the election; he merely encouraged people to vote "according to their beliefs." He is said to have been disappointed with the performance of the transitional government.

It was initially reported before the election that the UIA seats would be split between the parties as follows:

Analysis of the seat allocation after the elections showed that the 109 district seats and 19 compensatory seats won by the UIA were split as follows:

[3]

The Kurdistan Alliance (#730)

This Kurdish-dominated coalition was formed for the January 2005 election by the two main Kurdish parties—the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Kurdistan Region President Masoud Barzani and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan of the transitional Iraqi President Jalal Talabani—plus some other smaller parties. The DPAK formed a coalition government with the UIA in the wake of the January 2005 elections.

This coalition will also contest the December elections, but the smaller Kurdistan Islamic Union, who won 10 percent of the seats in the Dahuk and Sulaymaniyah governorate elections in January, has announced that it will form its own governmental lists.

Iraqi National List (#731)

The Iraqi List was established by Iyad Allawi, who served as interim Prime Minister before the January 2005 election. It is dominated by his Iraqi National Accord party.

For the December 2005 election, it has joined forces with former interim President Ghazi al-Yawar's The Iraqis list, the People's Union list (which is dominated by the Iraqi Communist Party), and the Sunni Arab politician Adnan Pachachi and his Assembly of Independent Democrats to form a single list called the Iraqi National List. This list will attempt to present a secular and trans-community alternative to the other major lists, which are more based on the support of a single ethnic or religious groups.

Iraqi Accord Front (#618)

The Iraqi Islamic Party originally registered for the January elections but then decided to boycott the polls, which meant that it did not gain any seats. It has decided to participate in the December elections, forming a list called the Iraqi Accord Front with two other smaller parties, the Iraqi Peoples' Gathering and the Iraqi National Dialogue. These parties aim to tap the Sunni Arab vote; Sunni Arabs overwhelmingly boycotted the January election, but increased Sunni participation in the constitutional referendum may indicate an increased Sunni turnout for the December elections, especially because more than 1,000 Sunni clerics called on their followers to vote, according to The New York Times .[4] However, the Association of Muslim Scholars, which is influential in the Sunni community, has called for a boycott of the December elections, which could have an adverse impact on the Iraqi Accord Front's success.

Other lists

Results

PartyVotes%Seats+/–
United Iraqi Alliance5,021,13741.19128–12
Democratic Patriotic Alliance of Kurdistan2,642,17221.6753–22
Iraqi Accord Front1,840,21615.0944New
Iraqi National List977,3258.0225–15
Iraqi National Dialogue Front499,9634.1011New
Kurdistan Islamic Union157,6881.295New
The Upholders of the Message145,0281.192New
Reconciliation and Liberation Bloc129,8471.073+2
Iraqi Turkmen Front87,9930.721–2
Rafidain List47,2630.3910
Mithal al-Alusi List32,2450.261New
Yazidi Movement for Reform and Progress21,9080.181+1
Other parties588,3484.830–
Total12,191,133100.002750
Valid votes12,191,13398.34
Invalid/blank votes205,4981.66
Total votes12,396,631100.00
Registered voters/turnout15,568,70279.63
Source: IPU

Aftermath

Fraud allegations

A group of Iraqi citizens walking down a path showing their purple fingers, signifying that they had voted.

On 22 December 2005 Sunni Arab and secular Shiite factions demanded that an international body review election fraud complaints, and threatened to boycott the new legislature. The United Nations rejected the idea.

Large demonstrations broke out across Iraq on 23 December to denounce the elections. Protesters said that the elections were rigged in favor of the main religious Shiite coalition. Many Iraqis outside the religious Shiite coalition allege that the elections were unfair to smaller Sunni Arab and secular Shiite groups. As many as 20,000 people demonstrated after noon prayers in southern Baghdad. Over 2,000 people demonstrated in Mosul, accusing Iran of involvement in the election.

Sheik Mahmoud al-Sumaidaei of the Association of Muslim Scholars, a major Sunni clerical group, told followers during prayers at Baghdad's Umm al-Qura mosque that they were "living a conspiracy built on lies and forgery."

Violence grew over the controversial election results. Car bombings and attacks on US and Iraqi officials continued after the elections. In Mosul Qusay Salahaddin, a Sunni Arab student leader was abducted and killed after leading a demonstration against the election results. Some 2,000 fellow students gathered at the mosque where Salahaddin's body was taken. Sunni's quickly accused militia forces loyal to one of the main parties in the Shiite Alliance bloc for Salahaddin's death. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the murder.[5]

Government formation

After six months of negotiations a "government of national unity" was agreed between the United Iraqi Alliance, Iraqi Accord Front, Kurdistani Alliance and Iraqi National List, under the leadership of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

See also

References

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