Opponents attribute the low turnout to the lack of confidence in the old parties
Iraqi politics at the mercy of militia bullets
The unprecedented protests erupted in Baghdad for the first time on October 1, 2019 and then spread to southern Iraq.
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The Popular Mobilization Forces, a group backed by Iran, emerged after the emergence of ISIS and its occupation of the Iraqi city of Mosul in 2014. Archive
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Last week, during the eighth parliamentary elections since the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, the percentage of Iraqis who participated in these elections was lower than ever before. The lack of enthusiasm for these elections is attributed to the lack of confidence in the old parties that still rule Iraq, and the personalities that lead them. That was certainly true, but there is something more fundamental to Iraqis' coolness about these elections, which is that most Iraqis know that the bullet is more powerful than the election. It is not only the state's use of force and violence against critics and protesters, but also armed militias that operate outside state control and public accountability.
Over the past two years, security forces and militias have joined forces to suppress protesters and assassinate activists participating in demonstrations against the government. Unprecedented demonstrations erupted in Baghdad, for the first time, on October 1, 2019, and then spread to southern Iraq. The death toll from the repression of these demonstrations reached about 1,000 people, while about 34 prominent leaders of these demonstrations were assassinated, and dozens of Iraqis who were imprisoned by the militias disappeared.
As a result of despair and fear, opponents of the government and those opposed to the militias called for a boycott of the parliamentary elections.
The percentage of participants in the elections is estimated at 41% of the Iraqis who are eligible to vote, which is lower than the elections that took place in 2018, which amounted to 43%.
"How can we expect activists to campaign for their election when guns are pointed at their heads?" asked the Iraqi researcher Ruba al-Hassani of the US-based Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy.
Given the lack of protection for activists at risk, the government has allowed the crackdown.”
The reasons for the protests are well known to many Middle Eastern countries, as 13% of the Iraqi workforce is unemployed.
Among the demonstrators were dozens of unemployed young men, a quarter of Iraqis aged between 16 and 24 are unemployed, and a third of Iraqis are currently living in extreme poverty, according to United Nations statistics.
In addition to work, protesters have been demanding basic services such as clean water and electricity, blaming corrupt politicians for all the problems in their lives, and calling for the abolition of Iraq's sectarian political system, which divides spoils and jobs based on ethnicity and religious sects.
The government's response with lethal force was expected.
Since the overthrow of the regime of the late President Saddam Hussein, the successive governments in Iraq have looted and stolen its wealth, as they were giving jobs to loyalists and cronies, ignoring infrastructure needs, blackmailing law-abiding citizens, and terrorizing weak minorities.
The reaction of the violent militias, which operate outside the control of the state, but are linked to the political parties, was aimed at self-preservation, and the demonstrators wanted to dismantle these militias, and get rid of their dangerous influence on the government and their intimidation of ordinary citizens. The demonstrators attacked Iran, which sponsors all these armed groups, exerts political pressure on the government, and attacks the remnants of US forces still operating in the country. The United States was also criticized, as it is an influential player in Iraq as well, as it is a foreign party to Iraq.
The growing list of assassinations during the past months reveals the extent of terrorism carried out by these militias, as they killed the activist Ihab Al-Wazni near his home in Karbala, and the prominent political commentator Hisham Al-Hashemi was shot outside his house in Baghdad, and the killers belonging to these militias were attacked The militias, TV journalist Ahmed Abdel Samad, and the photographer Safaa Ghali works with near the police station in Basra. The militias killed the nurse Jenan Madzi, who was treating the injured in the demonstrations, and the doctor and activist Reham Yaqoub was also killed in Basra.
After meeting with the police in the town of Al-Amarah, activist Amjad Al-Damat was killed as he walked home.
Activist Salah Al-Iraqi was shot and killed in eastern Baghdad, as a result of his active participation in the demonstrations.
The Iraqi had written for the last time on his Facebook account saying, "Innocents are being killed while cowards rule the country."
Campaigns for individual justice also face the risk of death. Ahmed Al-Haliji accused the Iranian-backed militias, called "Loyal Ansar Allah", of kidnapping his son, lawyer Ali Jaseb Al-Haliji, in October 2019. Jaseb Al-Haliji disappeared completely after this date, and no one heard anything about him. When the father urged the current prime minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, to hold the killers accountable, two men on a motorbike shot him, and he was killed while he was leaving the eulogy for another activist who had been assassinated in Amarah.
The Iraqi militia scene is dominated by two main groups, belonging to the Shiite sect in Iraq, and both of them attacked the activists against sectarianism and its followers. The first is Saraya al-Salam, headed by the Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr, whose group had fought the American occupation soldiers after the fall of the regime of former President Saddam Hussein. The second is the most powerful and influential militia, which is the “Popular Mobilization”, a group backed by Iran, which emerged after the emergence of the “ISIS” organization, and its occupation of the Iraqi city of Mosul in 2014.
During the beginning of the anti-government demonstrations, the Popular Mobilization Units carried out brutal attacks against the demonstrators.
Tehran leaders ordered the Popular Mobilization Forces to assist the Iraqi government in suppressing the demonstrations, because the demonstrations were similar to the anti-government demonstrations in Tehran and those in Lebanon against Hezbollah, a militia affiliated with Iran and part of the corrupt sectarian ruling class in Beirut.
Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, described the demonstrations in Iraq as a "conspiracy of enemies."
At the beginning of the demonstrations, al-Sadr supported the demonstrators, but after about a year, fearing criticism of his sectarian policy, he joined the Popular Mobilization Units, to spread terror in the hearts of the demonstrators.
During last week's elections, Sadr's Saraya al-Salam group and al-Hashd al-Shaabi, led by a coalition called the Al-Fateh Coalition, each fielded their candidates.
As expected, the elections did not produce a majority, and opened the way for the swap of ministries, jobs, and funds, a practice widely considered to be the root of Iraqi corruption.
"The taxes we pay for sectarianism are very large," said the Iraqi activist, Talal al-Hariri, who founded his non-sectarian party, called the October 25 Movement Party, and who did not participate in the elections.
Preliminary results indicated that al-Sadr's group leads parliament with 75 seats.
Al-Fatah won 16 seats, which prompted its leaders to complain about electoral fraud.
The other two groups, which achieved significant seats, were the Prescription Bloc, a Kurdish party, and the second was a Shiite organization headed by former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who, during his time in power from 2006 to 2014, allied himself with Shiite militias.
In reality, the parties that have dominated Iraqi politics seem ready to retain power.
Veteran protesters insist they will maintain pressure for change outside parliament, with the expectation that Iraq will move from identity politics to issue politics.
"A sound framework for understanding Iraq cannot ignore the role of this popular movement, nor can it maintain an exclusive focus on Iraq's old political elites, their interests, positions, and calculations," wrote the Center for Peace Empowerment in Iraq, a Washington-based think tank.
Parties all over the world, from Tehran to Washington, should pay attention to this.”
However, without accountability for the crimes committed in the past against protest activists and their followers, it is likely that such violence can and will recur, leaving politics at the mercy of the bullet.
Danielle Williams ■ Freelance reporter for several newspapers.
• The elections did not result in a majority, and opened the way for the swap of ministries, jobs and funds, a practice considered on the It is widely recognized as the origin and roots of Iraqi corruption.
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