On March 7, Iraqis will cast their vote during the country’s second parliamentary election. The Independent High Electoral Commission certified 306 political entities of which 251 decided to form coalitions. 6,529 candidates endorsed by 86 political entities or coalitions are running for 325 seats in the Council of Representatives. Six coalitions are major players. The election season has faced sectarian divisions and the banning of Sunni candidates will continue to generate debates. Security threats have also affected the campaign: ongoing violence has targeted candidates and some have been assassinated. Suicide bombings have increased as elections approach, potentially affecting voter turnout. Despite the high level of fragmentation and major security concerns, coalition’s candidates have highlighted the need to focus on economic issues.
As a story in Niqash.org points out, the economy is an issue of concern in Sunday’s election. There are many areas to consider: management of rents from hydrocarbons; education and health as key to competitiveness; the urgent need to diversify the structure of country’s economy; access to finance; macroeconomic stability; or strategies to deal with Iraq’s agriculture sector. These are issues that coalitions have included in their campaign platforms. As the article points out, there seems to be an agreement on the role of the private sector as leading the process with a government that provides an enabling environment. It is worth mentioning the effort of going beyond the vague and insubstantial idea of creating jobs for all Iraqis to explain how to reach that goal.
Other major problems have undermined the electoral process, such as vote buying or actions from the incumbent and renamed State of Law Coalition to favor itself. Even though Iraq’s democratic process is still feeble, by presenting concrete economic platforms candidates are responding to voters’ demands and creating other sources of support for their coalitions beyond regional cleavages or religion, to name just two. Presenting platforms is a step forward and highlighting the positive role of the private sector is another achievement. The challenge, in addition to stabilization, is to implement electoral promises through policies that respond to electoral platforms while enabling an environment in which no actor receives privileges at the expense of an equal playing field for all competitors.
Published Date: March 04, 2010