Category World News

A coalition led by Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has emerged as winner in Iraq’s parliamentary election, according to electoral authorities.

The Independent High Electoral Commission said on Wednesday that al-Sudani’s Reconstruction and Change coalition received 1.3 million votes in Tuesday’s election, about 370,000 more than the next closest competitor.

Speaking after the initial results were announced, al-Sudani hailed the voter turnout of 56 percent, saying it was “clear evidence of another success” that reflected the “restoration of confidence in the political system”.

However, while al-Sudani, who first came to power in 2022, had cast himself as a leader who could turn around Iraq’s fortunes after decades of instability, the poll was marked by disillusionment among weary voters who saw it as a vehicle for established parties to divide Iraq’s oil wealth.

Turnout was lower in areas like Baghdad and Najaf after populist Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr, leader of the Sadrist Movement, called on his vast numbers of supporters to boycott the “flawed election”.

As expected, Shia candidates won seats in Shia-majority provinces, while Sunni candidates secured victories in Sunni-majority provinces and Kurdish candidates prevailed in Kurdish-majority provinces.

But there were some surprises, notably in Nineveh, a predominantly Sunni Arab province, where the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) secured the highest number of seats.

Meanwhile, in Diyala province, which has a significant Kurdish minority, no Kurdish candidates won seats for the first time since 2005.

No party can form a government on its own in Iraq’s 329-member legislature, so parties build alliances with other groups to become an administration, a fraught process that often takes many months.

Back in 2021, al-Sadr secured the largest bloc before withdrawing from parliament following a dispute with Shia parties that refused to support his bid to form a government.

“None of the political factions or movements over the past 20 years have been able to gain a total majority … that allows one bloc to choose a prime minister, so at the end, this is going to lead to rounds of negotiations and bargaining among political factions,” said Al Jazeera’s Ali Hashem, reporting from Baghdad.

The poll marked the sixth election held in Iraq since a United States-led invasion in 2003 toppled longtime ruler Saddam Hussein and unleashed a sectarian civil war, the emergence of the ISIL (ISIS) group and the general collapse of infrastructure in the country.

The next premier must answer to Iraqis seeking jobs and improved education and health systems in a country plagued by corruption and mismanagement.

The head of the United Nations’ migration agency has called for a ceasefire and a humanitarian corridor to help tens of thousands of civilians trapped in el-Fasher, the city in Sudan’s Darfur region that fell to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) last month.

Amy Pope, director-general of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that “the primary concern is getting access” to residents who have been largely cut off from humanitarian aid and services in el-Fasher.

“When humanitarian actors are themselves at risk – when they’re killed, when they’re shot, when they’re detained – we can’t get the people what they need to survive,” Pope said.

“The primary issue is ensuring that there is a ceasefire, a humanitarian corridor, so that aid groups can bring in that aid to the civilians who are very much caught in the middle.”

Human rights groups have accused the RSF, which has been battling the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) for control of Sudan since April 2023, of committing widescale massacres in its capture of el-Fasher on October 26.

While thousands of residents remain stuck in el-Fasher, the capital of Sudan’s North Darfur state, nearly 90,000 others have fled since the RSF’s takeover, according to the latest IOM figures.

On Wednesday, Pope said displaced families have described dangerous journeys out of el-Fasher.

“They spoke about seeing dead bodies as they walked. They spoke about having to create makeshift trenches to avoid being shot at, or being harmed by the drones. They spoke of unspeakable, unbearable, sexual trauma [and] sexual abuse,” she said.

“The stories are really harrowing, and they’re happening now even as we speak.”

Her comments come a day after the IOM warned that humanitarian aid efforts in Sudan were “on the brink of collapse” due to continued insecurity and a lack of funding.

“Warehouses are nearly empty, aid convoys face significant insecurity, and access restrictions continue to prevent the delivery of sufficient aid,” the agency said in a statement, noting that violence is also spreading to other parts of the country.

Nearly 39,000 people have fled intense fighting in North Kordofan state, east of el-Fasher, between October 26 and November 9, the IOM said.

Meanwhile, Anna Mutavati, the regional director for East and Southern Africa at UN Women, told reporters this week that women and girls who fled el-Fasher now face serious threats of sexual violence in displacement camps around the city.

“What the women tell us is that … every step that they’ve taken – to fetch water, to collect firewood, or to stand in a food line – is carrying a high risk of sexual violence,” Mutavati said during a news conference in Geneva on Tuesday.

“There is mounting evidence that rape is being deliberately and systematically used as a weapon of war,” she added.