No positive change will happen in Iraq after the October elections: Iraqi politician

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Iraq’s upcoming October 10 parliamentary elections will bring no positive change to the country and the status quo will remain, Saleh Mutlaq, leader of the Iraqi Front for National Dialogue, told Kurdistan 24 on Tuesday.

“No positive change is expected to happen in Iraq after the elections, and the elite that rules the country now will remain in the front, as long as they have abilities that independents do not have,” Mutlaq said in an exclusive interview to Kurdistan 24.

Mutlaq, who is also a former deputy prime minister, said the same politicians will simply retain their positions of power post-October 10 since they have money, guns, and can commit fraud. The normal citizens, on the other hand, don’t have enough money to pay for an election flyer, he contended.

Iraq lacks a healthy election environment in which citizens who want to build the country can win elections, he added. The only way he sees this changing is if there is a real protest in which “80 percent of the Iraqi people go out to the street.”

Mutlaq pointed to the widespread fraud and low turnout in the 2018 Iraqi parliamentary elections, describing it as a big blow to democracy. Iraqi society has since lost complete hope in the political process. He predicts there will be less fraud in October’s election but remains pessimistic that anything will change.

Mutlaq’s National Dialogue Front announced its withdrawal from the elections in late July 2021.

“I withdrew from the elections and it is not possible to change my mind, without changing the election environment,” Mutlaq told Kurdistan 24.