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Candidates Withdrawal of Iraq's Elections Raises Doubt over its Integrity

Protesters hold pictures of people who have been killed in anti-government protests during a demonstration calling for the government to resign, in Baghdad, Iraq, on November 29, 2020. (AP)
Protesters hold pictures of people who have been killed in anti-government protests during a demonstration calling for the government to resign, in Baghdad, Iraq, on November 29, 2020. (AP)
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Candidates Withdrawal of Iraq's Elections Raises Doubt over its Integrity

Protesters hold pictures of people who have been killed in anti-government protests during a demonstration calling for the government to resign, in Baghdad, Iraq, on November 29, 2020. (AP)
Protesters hold pictures of people who have been killed in anti-government protests during a demonstration calling for the government to resign, in Baghdad, Iraq, on November 29, 2020. (AP)

The Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission said dozens of candidates decided to drop out of the country's parliamentary elections scheduled for October 10, raising doubts over the poll's credibility.

This came as hundreds of candidates had their candidacy withdrawn over their ties to the Baath party.

The Commission's spokesman, Hasan Salman, said the withdrawal requests are under review, noting that some might be rejected.

According to Salman, the electoral commission was not concerned if the decisions to drop out were personal choices or came under pressure, but rather cares if the candidates's requests met certain criteria.

Notably, the UN Security Council unanimously approved an Iraqi request for a UN team to monitor the upcoming parliamentary elections.

In 2019, tens of thousands of Iraqi protesters took to the streets against a government seen by demonstrators as corrupt, during which nearly 600 people have died.

The deaths sparked outrage across the country and prompted the resignation of then-premier Adel Abdel Mahdi.

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Israeli Airstrikes Kill 10 in School Housing Displaced Families, Hit Children's Hospital in Gaza

23 April 2025, Palestinian Territories, Gaza: Palestinian children inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Gaza City. Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
23 April 2025, Palestinian Territories, Gaza: Palestinian children inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Gaza City. Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
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Israeli Airstrikes Kill 10 in School Housing Displaced Families, Hit Children's Hospital in Gaza

23 April 2025, Palestinian Territories, Gaza: Palestinian children inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Gaza City. Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
23 April 2025, Palestinian Territories, Gaza: Palestinian children inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Gaza City. Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

An Israeli airstrike on a school sheltering displaced families in northern Gaza killed at least 10 people, while another hit a children's hospital, local health authorities said, taking Wednesday's death toll to 20.
Medics said the airstrike on the Yaffa School in the Tuffah area of Gaza City set fire to tents and classrooms. There has been no Israeli comment on the school attack.
Some furniture was still in flames several hours after the strike as people sifted through blackened classrooms and the schoolyard in search of their belongings, Reuters reported.
“We were sleeping and suddenly something exploded, we started looking and found the whole school on fire, the tents here and there were on fire, everything was on fire," said eyewitness, Um Mohammed Al-Hwaiti.
"People were shouting and men were carrying people, charred (people), charred children, and were walking and saying: ‘Dear God, dear God, we have no one but you.’ What can we say? Dear God, only,” she told Reuters.
Medics said at least 10 other people were killed in separate Israeli strikes across the enclave. Since a January ceasefire collapsed on March 18, Israeli attacks have killed more than 1,600 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health authorities, and hundreds of thousands have been forced from their homes as Israel seized what it calls a buffer zone of Gaza's land.
On Wednesday, the Gaza Health Ministry said an Israeli missile also hit the upper building of the Durra Children's Hospital in Gaza City, damaging the intensive care unit and destroying the solar panel system that feeds the facility with power. No one was killed in the hospital strike.
Gaza's healthcare system is close to collapse due to an Israeli blockade on all supplies to Gaza, including fuel and electricity, since the beginning of March, when it relaunched military operations.
It says the blockade is aimed at pressuring the Hamas militants who run Gaza to release 59 remaining Israeli hostages captured in the October 2023 attacks that precipitated the war. Hamas says it is prepared to free them but only as part of a deal that ends the war.
The health ministry said many Palestinian victims of Israeli military strikes remained trapped under rubble and on the roads, as rescue teams are unable to reach them because of ongoing bombardments. The attacks have also hit dozens of bulldozers and machinery used to clear roads, remove debris and to carry out rescue operations.
The Israeli military said on Tuesday it had hit 40 "engineering vehicles" that were used for "terrorist actions", including Hamas' October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
Some of those heavy vehicles were parked on the road and others inside the garages of municipalities.
“The machinery, because they open the streets and retrieve martyrs from under the houses. For a year now, some people have still not been retrieved from under the rubble," said Gaza man Nasser Mohammed Nasser, standing close to the mangled skeletons of destroyed bulldozers and trucks in Jabalia, in the north of the enclave.
Even before Tuesday's Israeli attack, Palestinians had complained they were short of heavy machinery, accusing Israel of refusing to allow the equipment into Gaza in violation of the January ceasefire deal.