Iraq’s parliament finally approved the 2018 federal budget last week after amendments were made by the parliamentary finance committee to the original bill submitted by the government. Key takeaways from this budget include cuts to security and defence spending; greater investment in the electricity and health sectors; and an...
Despite some individual calls for boycotting the upcoming election on May 12, 2018, there are several institutional, political, and socio-economic factors that will motivate Iraqi voters to participate at an acceptable level. Election turnout has been taking a decreasing trend in Iraq, as appears in Chart I, therefore, it...
Each electoral cycle, thousands of people in Iraq, including those with little chance of winning, announce their candidacy to run in the elections. 9043 candidates competed for 328 seats in the previous parliamentary election of 2014, which represents about 27 times the number of available seats. This ratio is...
The electoral system of provincial councils is based on proportional system, which enables many parties to win seats in proportion to their vote share, leading to politically unstable councils. Furthermore, each province is one electoral district, which weakens the dimension of accountability. These two aspects inhibit the ability of...
The electoral system in Iraq has become a controversial issue that has driven demonstrators to call for major reforms to the electoral commission and the electoral law. Last month, parliament approved the new commissioners of the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) but the current debates center on whether to...
Hussein Darwish al-Adly, a Researcher and Academic.
“Iraq is the epicentre of three nations (the Arab, Iranian and Turkish). Its cohesion implies the unity of the three Middle East nations, while its disintegration certainly means the redrawing of the entire region’s geopolitics. Iraq’s division is forbidden and surviving as a...
The war on corruption has been fought on many fronts, internationally and domestically, with differing degrees of success. The existing commentary on corruption in Iraq is extensive but some studies have focused on post-2003 Iraq without accounting for the roots of corruption that extend back to the Ba’athist regime....
Working in parallel with the effort to support Iraq’s armed forces to defeat Daesh, the international community recognises that it also has an important role to play in Iraq’s economic reform agenda. Only a rejuvenated and robust economy can effectively address the country’s reconstruction and governance challenges. Forging a...
Oil has often been described as part of the glue that holds Iraq together. And yet, few issues have proven more divisive to the fabric of the state since 2003 than those related to the management of the natural resource base and the distribution of the revenue accrued from...
As of the summer of 2016, Iraq is gradually winning its war against the Islamic State (IS). Major urban centres such as Ramadi and Fallujah have been liberated and the Iraqi security forces are slowly encircling Mosul, IS’ regional capital and the last major urban centre still in their...
