Sixteen Years of Parliamentary Elections in Iraq

• The first election for the Iraqi Council of Representative took place on December 15, 2005, under a close list system in which voters could only choose a list of political coalitions. The electoral coalitions were influenced by a vision of sectarian apportionment system (Muhasasa Ta’ifia), which divided Iraqi political field along ethno-sectarian lines ( Read more about the development of Muhasasa Ta’ifia here ). The 275 parliamentary seats were distributed among Iraq's 18 governorates.

• The main political coalitions of the 2005 election included:
• The United Iraqi Alliance, which represented Shi'a dominated parties and was supported by Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most senior Shi'ite cleric in Iraq
• The Kurdistan Alliance, which was an electoral coalition formed by two main Kurdish Parties, Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK)
• The Iraqi Accord Front, which consisted of Sunni dominated parties, and Iraqi List, a coalition of secular Shi'a politicians.

• The 2005 election was a major victory for the United Iraqi Alliance, which won 128 seats in the parliament.
• The Democratic Patriotic Alliance of Kurdistan was in second place with 53 seats.
• The Iraqi List, came third with 44 seats.

• After a long negotiation, the three political coalitions agreed to select Nouri al-Maliki as Iraq's prime minster.

The 2010 parliamentary election took place on March 7th, 2010. The number of seats was increased from 275 to 325, and unlike the 2005 election where voters could only vote for a party list, an open list system was adopted, which allowed voters to chose for a party list and individual candidates. Additionally, while the 2005 election was based on the whole country constituting a single constituency, in the 2010 election, each province was considered to represent one electoral district, and seats were allocated based on the province's population.

• The political coalitions formed in the 2005 election underwent some major transformations.
• A small opposition party in Iraqi Kurdistan named Goran (Change in Kurdish) broke from the the Kurdish Alliance list, which was dominated by the two main political Kurdish parties, KDP and PUK.
• Shi'a parties, which were represented by the United Iraqi Alliance in 2005, were divided into two major coalitions; first, the National Iraqi Alliance, which absorbed the majority of the United Iraqi Alliance, and second, the State of Law Coalition, which was formed by the prime minister Nouri al-Maliki.
• A new list named Iraqi National Movement (Iraqiya) was also introduced by former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and the Iraqi National Dialogue Front led by Saleh al-Mutlaq, which represented Sunni and Shi'a secular nationalists.

• Iraqi National Movement, a largely secular Sunni and Shiite coalition, won 91 seats.
• The State of Law Coalition secured 89 seats in the parliament.
• National Iraqi Alliance, which had dominated the 2005 election, came third with 70 seats.
• The Kurdistan Alliance won 43 seats.

• Despite the initial disagreements, the two Shi'a coalitions finally voted to choose Nouri al-Maliki to be the next prime minister.

• The fourth parliamentary election was held in Iraq on 30 April, 2014. The number of seats increased from 325 to 328, with 8 seats reserved for ethnic and religious minorities. Similar to the 2010 election, the electoral system was based on an open list. This election took place under deteriorating security condition due to the increasing threat of the Islamic State (see  this report  about the security condition of the 2014 election)
• The 2014 election witnessed a booming of political coalitions. The Iraqi Elections Commission approved  276  political entities to run in the election.
• The 2010 coalitions further divided into smaller factions.
• The Shi'ite parties were split between State of Law Coalition, led by Nouri al-Maliki, al-Ahrar Bloc, which was created under the support of Muqtada al-Sadr to oppose a third appointment of Nouri al-Maliki as the prime minister, and al-Muwatin coalition, backed by the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq.
• The Iraq National Movement, which was very successful during the 2010 election broke apart into Muttahidoon Coalition, a Sunni regionalist list supported by Usama al-Nujayfi's who was the speaker of the council of representatives from 2010-2014, al-Wataniya, led by the Ayad Allawi, and al-Arabiya Coalition, created by Saleh al-Mutlaq who was the deputy prime minister.
• The main Kurdish parties, which included Kurdistan Democratic Party, Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, and Gorran ran individually in the 2014 election.

• The State of Law Coalition of Nouri al-Maliki secured 94 parliament seats.
• Ayad Allawi, who led the al Iraqi National Movement list to victory in the 2010 elections, could only secure 21 seats with its al Wataniyya coalition. Other Sunni led coalition, Muttahidoon Coalition, also did not perform successfully and only won 23 seats.
• Among the Kurdish Parties, Kurdistan Democratic Party and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan gained 19 seats, and Gorran secured 9 seats in Iraqi parliament.
• Although al-Maliki's State of Law Coalition won the most seats, it fell short of a majority. Nouri al-Maliki agreed to step down as prime minister due to growing pressure from members of his own party and world leader, which allowed Haider al-Abadi to become prime minister.

• The fifth Iraqi election took place on 12 May 2018 after the territorial defeat of Islamic State in Iraq. Similar to the last two elections, the electoral system was based on an open list. One special seat for Feyli Kurds was added to parliamentary seats increasing the total numbers to 329.

• The landscape of electoral coalitions for the Shi'a groups underwent some transformations and was further split. Muqtada al-Sadr, which led the Al-Ahrar Bloc sin the 2014 election, formed a new coalition called Saairun (Alliance Towards Reform) uniting the Shi’i Islamist movement and the Iraqi Communist Party. Hadi al-Amiri and some leaders of the predominantly Shiʿa Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) formed Fatah (Conquest) Alliance to participate in the 2018 election. Sayyid Ammar al-Hakim who was previously the leader of Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq organized a new coalition called National Wisdom Movement. Haider al-Abadi participated in the election with Victory Alliance, and the former prime minister led the State of Law Coalition.
• Other political coalitions remained almost similar to the 2014 election. Ayad Allawi led Al-Wataniya‎, Osama al-Nujaif formed Iraqi Decision Alliance, and Kurdistan Democratic Party, Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, and Gorran were the main Kurdish political coalitions.

• Muqtada al-Sadr's Alliance Towards Reform delivered a surprise victory securing 54 seats.
• Fateh Alliance gain 47 seats, and the incumbent Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s Victory Alliance came third with 42 seats.
• The former Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki's State of Law Coalition could only gain 25 seats.
• Ayad Allawi’s National Coalition won 21 seats, and the Iraqi Decision Alliance received 14 seats.
• Among the Kurdish coalitions, KDP was the most successful list with 25, PUK came second with 18, and Gorran with 5 seats.
• Although al-Sadr's coalition received the most seats, its victory was not enough to form a new government. Following several rounds of negotiations, the parliament elected Barham Salih as the new president on 2 October 2018, who then nominated Adil Abdul-Mahdi as Prime Minister.

The sixth parliamentary election is scheduled to be held on 10 October 2021 amidst a deep legitimacy crisis that the Iraqi Government has faced following the 2019 protest movement. The Tishreen (October) uprising, which consisted of a series of mainly anti-corruption and anti-sectarian protests, has had enormous effects on Iraq's political field. The replacement of the ethno-sectarian system with genuine democracy has been one of the main demands of the protesters.

As a response to the protest movement, Iraq’s parliament approved a new election law to overhaul the electoral process. Some of the main provisions of the new election law incudes:

• Allowing voters to elect individual candidates instead of choosing from party lists.
• Instead of designating each governorate as a single district, the new law divides the country's provinces into smaller districts.
• Each candidate represents a specific electoral district instead of a group of lawmakers representing the whole governorate.
• Candidates are required to be resident or native to the district they seek to represent.

Although these changes were introduced to transform Iraqi politics into into a non-sectarian field, some have  criticized  the new law for "formalizing" the administrative sectarian borders. There are also  concerns  that the old political parties, which have dominated Iraq's politics since 2003, hold enormous political power and are determined to prevent new candidates from organized opposition. Despite these shortcomings, however, there are still many uncertainties about the outcome of the October election.