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Ahead of this week’s parliamentary election in Iraq, members of Iraqi security forces and displaced people living in camps cast their ballots on Sunday in early voting.
An estimated 1.3 million army and security personnel and around 26,000 displaced people are eligible to vote.
7,744 candidates are competing in the election, most of them from parties largely aligned with sectarian interests. Election day is set for Tuesday.
The election, which will help determine whether Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani gets a second term, comes against the backdrop of fears of another conflict between Israel and Iran, and Iraq’s balancing act with Tehran and Washington.
Displaced minority Yazidis are voting
Yazidis, many of whom fled their homes over a decade ago after attacks by the Islamic State group, voted at a camp near Dohuk, in the semi-autonomous northern Iraqi Kurdish region. Many have still not been able to return home because of political disputes and a lack of infrastructure.
During their terror campaign, IS militants rampaged through Iraq’s Sinjar district in Nineveh province, killing and enslaving thousands of Yazidis, who the extremist group considered heretics.
Since the defeat of IS in Iraq and Syria, members of the Yazidi community have been trickling back to their homes in Sinjar, but many see no future there. There’s no money to rebuild destroyed homes. Infrastructure is still wrecked. Multiple armed groups carve up the area.
Edris Zozani, a displaced Yazidi who voted in the camp, said he voted for the Kurdish Democratic Party, or KDP, one of the two main Kurdish parties in the country, which holds sway in Dohuk.
“If we have independent Yazidi candidates, they wouldn’t be able to represent us effectively,” he argues. “But if they go to parliament as part of strong lists, like the KDP, they would be in a better position to support the Yazidi community.”
Uniforms at the polls in Baghdad
In the Iraqi capital, Iraqi soldiers and police voted, as well as members of the Popular Mobilisation Forces, a coalition of primarily Shiite, Iran-backed militias that united to fight IS. The coalition was formally placed under the control of Iraq’s military in 2016, but in practice, it still operates with significant autonomy.
The fate of the PMF will be a complicated issue facing the next parliament amid tensions between Baghdad and Washington over the presence of Iran-backed militias in Iraq.
The parliament has been considering legislation that would solidify the relationship between the military and the PMF, drawing objections from Washington.
“I voted for the list that defends the PMF,” said one militiaman after voting in Baghdad, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to journalists. He did not specify which list he meant.
Several of the armed groups that make up the PMF have associated political parties participating in the elections.