Minority quota candidates received over 96,000 votes in Iraqi election

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Minority candidates won 96,076 votes in Iraq's early parliamentary elections held last week, winning nine seats allotted to them within the Middle Eastern nation's quota system.

According to the latest preliminary results announced by the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), out of a total of nine seats allocated to religious and ethnic minorities, Christian candidates obtained five of them after collecting 46,396 votes.

The Christian quota seats are located within the provinces of Baghdad, Kirkuk, Nineveh, Erbil, and Duhok.

The list of the winning candidates included Minister of Displacement and Migration Evan Faiek Jabru, who won the Christian quota seat in Baghdad province after securing 12,989 votes. The other winning candidate is Baida Khader, who won the quota seat in Duhok province with 12,405 votes.

The list of winning candidates from the Babylon movement also included the candidate from Nineveh province Aswan al-Kildani, who collected 11,097 votes, along with the movement's candidate in Kirkuk, Jamil Ishwa, who won 5,039 votes.

The one seat allotted to Christians in Erbil was taken with 5,084 votes by Farouk Hanna Atto, who participated as an independent candidate and was supported by supporters of the Communist Party.

According to the new Parliamentary Elections Law, all of Iraq was considered a single electoral district for Christians, where voters from any of the nation's religious and ethnic groups could vote for the candidates from the Christian community running in any province.

Across Iraq, 34 Christian candidates ran in the election, including 13 women, nine of them in Baghdad province, six in Nineveh, five in Kirkuk, eight in Erbil and six in Duhok.

The preliminary results of the parliamentary elections showed that Hussein Ali Mardan, among 10 Faili Kurds running in Wasit province, won the single quota seat there, getting 19,579 votes as an independent candidate.

As for the single quota seat for members of the Yezidi (Ezidi) community in Nineveh province, it was won by the Ezidi Progress Party candidate Nayef Khalaf Sido, who beat out seven other party or independent candidates.

Nineveh province seats also included a single quota seat for the Shabak minority, won by the independent candidate Waad Mahmoud Ahmed, who managed to collect 18,590 votes.