DUHOK, Kurdistan Region — A Christian list backed by Fatih Coalition leader Hadi al-Amiri managed to win two quota seats, as other Christian parties say the Babylon Movement List was systematically propped up the votes of Shiite Arabs.
"A huge injustice was done to the Christians this time. The Babylon List, close to Hadi al-Amiri, had received just 4,000 votes in the previous election and did not have even a seat. But this time their votes skyrocketed to 33,000," Nael Odisho, the head of the public relations of the Assyrian Democratic Movement, told Rudaw.
He claimed that "thirty thousands of the votes are from Shiites."
Amiri’s party, which is affiliated with the Iran-backed, Shiite-led Hashd al-Shaabi paramilitias, took 47 seats in Iraq’s parliamentary elections held on May 12.
The Hashd militias filled a power vacuum left by ISIS, recruiting Christians into brigades promising them security to return to their homelands in Nineveh province.
Five seats were dedicated for the Christians as part of the minority quota system — one each from Baghdad, Erbil, Duhok, Kirkuk and Nineveh. In this election, seven Christian lists fielded 60 candidates.
Of the quota seats, the Babylon List won two, and the Chaldean Syriac Assyrian Popular Council (CSAPC) took one. Additionally, the Rafidain (Mesopotamia) List grabbed one, and the fifth went to the Assyrian Democratic Movement.
Odisho denounced the Babylon List's attempts to win the quota seats of the Christians.
"There are just 11 families living inside the town of Tel Kayf, but Babylon has received 7,000 votes," he said, revealing his party has filed a lawsuit against this manipulation of votes by the Babylon List.
“In the 2014 election, the turnout among the people of Iraq was just 64 percent. The votes for Christians were 105,000. But in this election, in addition to the low turnout, the Christian votes have increased to 110,000. It is clear that 30,000-40,000 votes are not from the Christians, themselves,” added Odisho.
Odisho's party has close ties with the KDP. In the previous round of the elections, they won two of the minority quota seats, but this time just one.
Jamil Zaito, a former CSAPC official, also shared Odisho’s view.
"We do not have a clue why the Shiites have voted for the Babylon list, but our reservation is how this huge number of votes went to the Babylon List," he said.
According to the 1987 Iraqi census, 1.5 million Christians lived in Iraq. Prior to the ISIS conflict, there were about 400,000 Christians. Through the ISIS war, about 200,000 went to the Kurdistan Region with about that many fleeing the country. Exact figures don’t exist on the number of Christian IDPs who have returned from the Kurdistan Region to their homes in areas once controlled by ISIS.
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