Iraq Electoral Commission Sets 5 Conditions for Holding Polls

President Barham Salih meets with UN envoy to Iraq Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert. (Twitter)
President Barham Salih meets with UN envoy to Iraq Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert. (Twitter)
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Iraq Electoral Commission Sets 5 Conditions for Holding Polls

President Barham Salih meets with UN envoy to Iraq Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert. (Twitter)
President Barham Salih meets with UN envoy to Iraq Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert. (Twitter)

Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission announced on Monday five conditions to hold early parliamentary elections in June 2021.

It issued a statement shortly after the country’s highest Shiite authority, Ali al-Sistani, voiced his support for holding the polls during a meeting with United Nations envoy Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert.

The Commission said it welcomed Sistani’s position, saying it will be ready to stage the elections “once its conditions, which it has frequently stipulated, are met.”

It demanded that the parliament approve an electoral law “as soon as possible” and that it complete the legislation of the Federal Supreme Court. It also demanded that the government prepare the budget to hold the elections and that it approve the appointment of general directors elected by the Board of Commissioners. It also called on the United Nations and other concerned international organizations to assist in the electoral process and provide the necessary supervision to ensure that they are transparent.

President Barham Salih expressed his support for Sistani’s stance.

“Next year’s elections are fateful and must meet the necessary conditions that allow its results to be credible,” he said after receiving Hennis-Plasschaert in the city of al-Sulaymaniyah on Sunday.

He also stressed the need to implement the government’s policy statement in achieving social justice, cracking down on criminals, combating corruption, boosting the security forces and restoring the authority of the state and limiting the possession of arms to it.

Salih said the elections can be held once the electoral law is approved. Such a law should ensure real representation of all Iraqis and reflects their will to freely elect their representatives.

The results of the polls will consequently reflect the people’s desire for change and ensure that they are properly represented in government and at parliament, he added.

Another important element of the elections is ensuring that they are transparent, he remarked, stressing the need to take strict measures that thwart any voter fraud.

Sistani said on Sunday that the upcoming elections “are of great importance.”

Iraqis should be encouraged to participate "widely," he added, while warning that failing to hold the polls on time or in a free and fair way would "threaten the unity and future of Iraq's people."

Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi had announced in late July that Iraq would hold parliamentary elections nearly a year early, seeking to make good on one of the main promises he made when he came to power earlier this year.

On whether the elections will meet the people’s expectations, MP Aras Habib Karim told Asharq Al-Awsat: “The conditions set by Sistani demand all parties, forces and blocs to adopt them as a roadmap.”

“Everyone must commit to these conditions,” he added, while also highlighting the Commission’s demands.

Head of Iraq’s Advisory Council, Farhad Alaaldin, appeared skeptical over the polls, predicting the political powers will resort to stalling despite Sistani’s clear backing of the elections.

He told Asharq Al-Awsat the elections will likely be held in 2021, but they will probably be postponed to the fall.



Lebanon Military Says One Soldier Killed, 18 Hurt in Israeli Strike on Army Center

Lebanese army soldiers and people stand at the site of an Israeli strike in the town of Baaloul, in the western Bekaa Valley, Lebanon October 19, 2024. REUTERS/Maher Abou Taleb
Lebanese army soldiers and people stand at the site of an Israeli strike in the town of Baaloul, in the western Bekaa Valley, Lebanon October 19, 2024. REUTERS/Maher Abou Taleb
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Lebanon Military Says One Soldier Killed, 18 Hurt in Israeli Strike on Army Center

Lebanese army soldiers and people stand at the site of an Israeli strike in the town of Baaloul, in the western Bekaa Valley, Lebanon October 19, 2024. REUTERS/Maher Abou Taleb
Lebanese army soldiers and people stand at the site of an Israeli strike in the town of Baaloul, in the western Bekaa Valley, Lebanon October 19, 2024. REUTERS/Maher Abou Taleb

An Israeli strike on a Lebanese army center on Sunday killed one soldier and wounded 18 others, the Lebanese military said.

It was the latest in a series of Israeli strikes that have killed over 40 Lebanese troops, even as the military has largely kept to the sidelines in the war between Israel and Hezbollah.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has said previous strikes on Lebanese troops were accidental and that they are not a target of its campaign against Hezbollah.

Lebanon's caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, condemned it as an assault on US-led ceasefire efforts, calling it a “direct, bloody message rejecting all efforts and ongoing contacts” to end the war.

“(Israel is) again writing in Lebanese blood a brazen rejection of the solution that is being discussed,” a statement from his office read.

The strike occurred in southwestern Lebanon on the coastal road between Tyre and Naqoura, where there has been heavy fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and drones into Israel after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack out of the Gaza Strip ignited the war there. Hezbollah has portrayed the attacks as an act of solidarity with the Palestinians and Hamas. Iran supports both armed groups.

Israel has launched retaliatory airstrikes since the rocket fire began, and in September the low-level conflict erupted into all-out war, as Israel launched waves of airstrikes across large parts of Lebanon and killed Hezbollah's top leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and several of his top commanders.

Israeli airstrikes early Saturday pounded central Beirut, killing at least 20 people and wounding 66, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry. Hezbollah has continued to fire regular barrages into Israel, forcing people to race for shelters and occasionally killing or wounding them.

Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,500 people in Lebanon, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. The fighting has displaced about 1.2 million people, or a quarter of Lebanon’s population.

On the Israeli side, about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed by bombardments in northern Israel and in battle following Israel's ground invasion in early October. Around 60,000 Israelis have been displaced from the country's north.

Hezbollah fired barrages of rockets into northern and central Israel on Sunday, some of which were intercepted.

Israel's Magen David Adom rescue service said it was treating two people in the central city of Petah Tikva, a 23-year-old man who was lightly wounded by a blast and a 70-year-old woman suffering from smoke inhalation from a car that caught fire. The first responders said they also treated two women in their 50s who were wounded in northern Israel.

It was unclear whether the injuries and damage were caused by the rockets or interceptors.

The Biden administration has spent months trying to broker a ceasefire, and US envoy Amos Hochstein was back in the region last week.

The emerging agreement would pave the way for the withdrawal of Hezbollah fighters and Israeli troops from southern Lebanon below the Litani River in accordance with the UN Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 war. Lebanese troops would patrol the area, with the presence of UN peacekeepers.