Muqtada al-Sadr

Populist Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has emerged victorious in Iraq’s 10 October parliamentary elections, a contest marred by boycotts and apathy. It is the first time Iraqis have gone to the polls since the government was toppled by mass protests in 2019. Just 41 per cent of registered voters participated, the lowest turnout in an Iraqi parliamentary election since the 2003 US-led invasion. Low turnout has sapped hopes of a significant breakthrough for the protest-linked Emtidad Movement, which has reportedly won eight seats. The political wing of Iraq’s powerful Iranian-backed militias, the Fatah Alliance, has lost two-thirds of its seats in the council of representatives, down from 48 to 16. The party’s leader has rejected the results as “a scam”. The Sadrist Movement is expected to win 73 seats, giving Al-Sadr strong leverage in the coming negotiations. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(e){if(void 0!==e.data["datawrapper-height"]){var t=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var a in e.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r