Iraqis put an end to weekly protests against election results

ByNews Desk- The Cradle

Supporters of PMU-affiliated parties had been gathering outside Baghdad's Green Zone since mid-October to demand renewed ballots

Protesters gathering at Baghdad's Tahrir Square near Al-Jumhuriya Bridge, which leads to the high-security Green Zone across the Tigris River. (Photo credit: AFP)

Late on 31 December, the supporters of Iraq’s Coordination Framework, an ad hoc group of Shia-majority parties affiliated with the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), removed their protest tents from outside of Baghdad’s Green Zone.

“At 16.00 local time, the protesters began to remove the tents and gradually withdraw in front of the gates of the heavily fortified Green Zone,” a security source told Arabic media.

Leaders from the Coordination Framework reportedly called on supporters to end their mobilization after the Federal Supreme Court ratified the parliamentary election results.

Soon after Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) announced the preliminary results from the 10 October ballots, protesters began taking to the streets to allege fraud in the electronic vote system.

On 5 November the mobilizations in Baghdad turned violent after security forces used live ammunition on hundreds of supporters of the Coordination Framework.

But despite the repressive violence, the protesters continued gathering outside Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone to demand renewed ballots.

The final results ratified by the judiciary show that the Sadrist Movement, led by Muqtada al-Sadr, emerged as the clear winner with 73 seats in the 329-seat parliament. They are followed by the Al-Takaddom party, one of two main Sunni political groups in Iraq, with 37 seats.

Meanwhile, the State of Law Coalition came third with 33 seats, while the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) won 31 seats.

Trailing far behind is the Fatah Alliance, which saw their representation in parliament drop from 45 seats in 2018 to 17 this year. Several other parties belonging to the Framework also saw their results drop significantly.