iraq

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Flag of Iraq

Flag Description

Three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white, and black with three green five-pointed stars in a horizontal line centred in the white band; the phrase ALLAHU AKBAR (God is Great) in green Arabic script—Allahu to the right of the middle star and Akbar to the left of the middle star—was added in January 1991 during the Persian Gulf crisis.

Election type: Parliamentary

Election dates: 30 January 2005 (elected a 275-member Transitional National Assembly (TNA) that will draft and approve a permanent constitution paving the way for a referendum on 15 October, and national elections on 15 December 2005. According to Article 4 of the Elections Law, voting may be postponed if the security situation requires it.

Number of registered voters: approximately 14 662 639

Compulsory voting: No

Government

Type: The Iraqi Transitional Government assumed sovereign authority for governing Iraq on 28 June, 2004. The largest number of appointments went to Shiites who, following the January 2005 elections hold 140 of the 275 member National Assembly.

Chief of State: Iraqi Transitional Government (ITG) President Jalal TALABANI (since 6 April 2005). Deputy Presidents are Adil Abd AL-MAHDI and Ghazi al-Ujayl al-YAWR since 6 April 2005. Note—the President and Deputy Presidents comprise the Presidency Council)

Party in Government: A loose coalition of Kurdish Party and Shia Party.

Head of Government: Iraqi TNA Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari served as the first president of the Iraqi Governing Council (IGC), the twenty-five member governing body appointed by the U.S. led occupation government in July 2003. He is the chief spokesman of the Dawa Party, a Shiite Islamist group that was founded in Iraq in the late 1950s.

Branches:Executive—Presidency Council, Prime Minister (Head of Government) Cabinet —thirty-two ministerial Cabinet positions of which four are Deputy Prime Ministers. The Cabinet consists of seventeen Shiites, nine Kurds, eight Sunnis, two Turkmen, and one Christian.

Legislative—a unicameral National Assembly or Majlis Watani (consisting of 275 members) elected via closed-party lists based on a proportional-representation system with the whole country as the electorate.

Judicial—Supreme Court appointed by the Prime Minister, confirmed by the Presidency Council.

Political parties: There were 228 political ‘entities’ (parties or individuals), with an estimated 19 000 candidates who registered to contest the various elections since March 2003. The national Transitional National Assembly elections alone attracted some 7 000 candidates. There were 73 single-party lists, plus nine multiparty coalitions and twenty-five individuals. The major parties formed either alliances or have their own lists of candidates. The major ‘parties’ are The United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), the Democratic Patriotic Alliance of Kurdistan (DPAK), Iraqiyun, Iraqi National Accord Party, Iraqi Islamic Party (Sunni) and the Iraqi Communist Party.

Suffrage: universal at 18

Full background and updated information on the creation of an Iraqi government can be found at the Council on Foreign Relations web pages devoted to Iraq.

The vote by Iraqis to elect the 275-member Transitional National Assembly (TNA) as well as provincial and regional governments is the focus of an Oxford Analytica article of 31 January 2005, entitled Iraq: election turnout boosts transition prospects. Included in this article is information on voter turnout more generally, the regional and sectarian turnout, specifically the high Kurdish and Shiite vote as contrasted with the lower Sunni Arab areas. The impact of violence, the threat factor as well as security issues and the likely composition of the government are also discussed.

An Oxford Analytica article entitled Iraq: threat of deadlock as new government takes shape, of 15 February 2005 looks at the intricacies faced by the political parties as they work to form a new government. Discussed are the main vote winners: The United Iraqi Alliance with 48 percent of the votes, The Kurdish Alliance with 26 percent and The Iraqi List headed by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi with 14 percent. Also examined is the political pecking order which will be determined by the recalculation of voting allocations, seat distribution, the absence of the Sunni Arab factions from the Transitional National Assembly (TNA), the writing of a new constitution and the challenges of obtaining internal consensus

Iraq’s transfer to sovereignty occurred on 28 June 2004, two days sooner than expected. For background leading up to the hand-over, the International Crisis Group (ICG) Report of April 2004, entitled Iraq’s transition on a knife edge, discusses meeting the 30 June election date, the role of the United Nations, the formation, composition and mandate of the provisional government, and the status of the occupying forces.

Of Australia’s estimated 30 000 Iraqi citizens, it is reported that only about 10 000 had registered to vote in the 30 January poll. Fear and apathy are cited as two of the reasons for the low voter registration. In an ABC World Today interview dated 24 January 2005, Bernie Hogan who heads up Australia’s Out of Country Voting Program, said that the Australian voter turnout was about 25 per cent of the estimated maximum figures.

The US State Department's web pages entitled Iraq: an elections primer give comprehensive background to the political situation in Iraq as well as a timeline.

For copyright reasons some linked items are only available to members of Parliament.