A source from Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) told Rudaw that the integrity commission has sent them a formal request to handover the names of leaders of political parties and alliances in order for their wealth and properties to be investigated.
“When any political party or alliance registers its name with the commission, we will send the information about their leaders and founding members to the integrity commission,” Emad Jamil, head of the journalistic team at IHEC, told Rudaw’s Hastyar Qadir.
The integrity commission said in late June that there is little cooperation between leaders and founding members of political parties to disclose their assets, adding that they will coordinate with IHEC to tackle this issue.
According to Article 16 of the Iraqi Commission of Integrity, the president, prime minister, MPs, political party leaders, and other senior members must fill out an annual asset disclosure form and submit it to the commission to investigate in case of an increase in wealth.
“After submitting the names of leaders and founding members of political parties to the integrity commission, the board will ask them to disclose their assets,” Jamil said.
In late June, the integrity commission said that it issued arrest warrants for 52 high-ranking officials during the month of May on charges of corruption.
Rampant corruption plagues all levels of the Iraqi state, and official figures published last year estimated that well over 400 billion dollars have gone missing from state coffers since the regime of Saddam Hussein was overthrown in 2003.
The crisis-hit country ranks 157 out of 180 countries in Transparency International’s corruption perceptions index.
As of Monday, 77 political parties and 41 alliances have registered with the electoral commission for the Iraqi provincial elections scheduled to take place on December 18.
Iraq will hold provincial council elections on December 18, the first of their kind since 2013. The councils, created by the 2005 Iraqi constitution following the fall of Saddam Hussein, are powerful bodies that hold significant power in the country, including setting the budgets for several sectors such as education, health, and transport.
On Saturday, the electoral commission began receiving applications to register in the elections.
