Iraq’s Parliament has approved May 12,2018 as the date for holding National Elections despite calls from the country’s Sunni community to delay the vote until the return of nearly 3 million people displaced by the fight against the Islamic State group.
Lawmaker Abbas al-Bayati said the legislative body “unanimously” approved the date, which was proposed by the government, at Monday’s session.
The deeply-divided parliament failed many times to set the date, prompting the country’s Supreme Court to issue a ruling on Sunday against any further delay.
The over three-year-old fight against IS has left most of the Sunni areas in northern and western Iraq in ruins, and poor public services have exacerbated the situation.
The elections were originally scheduled for September 2017, but were delayed by six months due to the civil war with Daesh which ended in December 2017 with the recapture of their remaining territories
The elections decide the 328 members of the Council Of Representatives who will in turn elect the Iraqi President and Prime Minister
A total of 204 parties have registered to contest the elections, as of Dec 26,2017
The deadline for registering coalitions was Jan 11,2018
A total of 27 coalitions were registered by the deadline, grouping 143 political parties, with registered parties not part of a coalition also free contest separately
The ruling State Of Law Coalition, which won the last election with 92 seats, will contest the election with two separate coalitions. Prime Minister Haider al Abadi will contest the election as head of a coalition called "Victory" (a reference to the victory over Daesh) while his predecessor, Vice President Nouri al Maliki will head the State of Law list.
Members of the Dawa Party- which they both come from - are free to support either list.
The elections will be the fourth since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
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