Shia cleric Sadr’s party leads Iraq parliamentary elections

By Ibrahim Salih

BAGHDAD (AA) - Iraqi Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s party won most seats in this weekend’s early parliamentary elections, initial results showed on Monday.

Sadr’s bloc won 73 seats in the 329-member parliament, followed by Taqaddoum (progress) bloc of Parliament Speaker Mohamed al-Halbousi with 38 seats, showed the results cited by the official Iraqi news agency.

The State of Law bloc led by former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki came third with 37 seats, according to the results.

Sadr’s bloc seeks to secure enough seats in parliament to form a government.

In the 2018 parliamentary elections, the Sadr-backed Sairoon alliance won 54 seats in parliament.

Sunday’s elections saw 3,249 candidates representing 21 coalitions and 109 parties vying for seats in the assembly.

The polls saw a low turnout of only 41%, according to the election commission.

The polls were originally scheduled for 2022 but political parties decided to hold early elections following mass protests that erupted in 2019 against deep-seated corruption and poor services.

The vote was the fifth in Iraq since 2003 when a US-led invasion overthrew the regime of former President Saddam Hussein.

*Writing by Mahmoud Barakat in Ankara