Iraq protests .. Parliament discusses election law and assassinations of activists on the rise

Today, Wednesday, the Iraqi Council of Representatives is discussing the draft election law in a regular session that comes at a time when protest demonstrations continue in Baghdad. On the other hand, the body of a civilian activist was found at dawn today, hours after his disappearance north of the capital, so that the assassination of the activists may increase in the recent period.

A vote is expected on the new law for parliamentary elections, and the process of passing the law faces major reservations because of the mechanism included in the draft law, which parliamentary sources say gives an opportunity to electoral lists to compete against the individual nomination, which is widely supported by the street, and demands that the competition be individual candidates.

Two weeks ago, Parliament conducted a first reading of the draft electoral law, but it faced criticism from activists of the movement, as well as from the United Nations, which said that the draft did not meet the demands of the people.

mixed
The draft law provides for the adoption of a mixed system between individual voting and electoral lists in the method of calculating votes, which is rejected by the demonstrators who call for elections in the manner of direct individual voting and the one who gets the highest number of votes wins.

The protesters say the current election law serves the ruling parties at the expense of small blocs and independents.

The leader of the Sadrist movement, Muqtada al-Sadr, called on parliament to pass a law in support of individual nomination in each governorate, taking into account the number of its population. He also proposed regarding the provincial councils that only three people be held, who are the governor, his deputy, and the head of the provincial council, considering this to the satisfaction of the people.

And he urged - in a statement published today by Saleh Muhammad al-Iraqi, close to the leader of the Sadrist movement - to cancel the vote of Iraqis abroad, even temporarily, or to reconsider the way that will be adopted, while tightening control over the vote of members of the security forces, warning of procrastination or not voting on the law today .

Parliament had previously voted a few days ago to dissolve the Independent Electoral Commission, and to form a new commission with nine judges to be chosen by lot. The ruling parties were called members of the commission.

The assassination of an activist
On the other hand, Anatolia news agency quoted a security source saying that the body of the activist Ali Najm al-Lami, who had disappeared yesterday evening after leaving Tahrir Square, in the middle of Baghdad, was found at dawn today, and headed to his house in al-Sha`b district, north of the capital.

The security source added that al-Lami's body was found in the vicinity of his house, with a bullet to the head, and that he died.

Before the assassination of Al-Lami, two unidentified gunmen killed Sunday evening in Karbala, a prominent activist in the popular protests against the government and the ruling class, while two other activists survived assassination attempts in the cities of Karbala and Amara, south of the country, according to security sources.

The incidents of targeting activists with the protests are repeated, including the killing of the press photographer, Ahmed Al-Muhanna, by a sharp object, and the kidnapping of the photographer Zaid Muhammad Al-Khafaji last Friday in Baghdad.

The government has repeatedly pledged to prosecute those behind the killings and kidnappings of militants, with no results so far.

Tuesday demonstrations
The participants of the demonstrations yesterday in Baghdad and other cities have demanded accountability for those responsible for the killing of protesters in the protest arenas and the assassination of unknown militants for activists far from the demonstration areas.

Since the protests began in early October, 485 people have been killed and more than 17,000 wounded, according to a statistic compiled by the Anatolia Agency based on official Human Rights Commission figures linked to parliament and medical and security sources.

The majority of the victims of the protesters have fallen into confrontations with the security forces and militants of the Popular Mobilization factions have links with Iran, according to the demonstrators and international human rights reports, but the Popular Mobilization denies any role in killing the protesters.