Iraq’s electoral body sends over 520 appeals for judicial review

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s electoral body said Wednesday it has forwarded more than 520 appeals related to the country’s mid-November legislative election to the panel responsible for deciding on them, which has already dismissed 36. The body had previously told Rudaw it was reviewing over 870 appeals.

In a statement carried by the state-run Sabah newspaper, the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) said it “sent 528 appeals regarding the election results to the Electoral Judicial Panel” for review, noting that the panel “dismissed 36 appeals” so far.

Jumana al-Ghalai, IHEC spokesperson, said on Friday that “872 appeals have been lodged regarding the final results of the Iraqi parliamentary elections,” adding that “the window for appeals is now closed.”

She explained that the Commission “will now prepare its responses to all appeals within seven days and forward them to the Electoral Judicial Panel” - an affiliate of the Supreme Judicial Council, Iraq’s highest administrative authority overseeing the judiciary.

Following the panel’s decisions, the IHEC’s Board of Commissioners will submit the official results and the names of the winning candidates to Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court for final ratification, Ghalai added.

Iraq held legislative elections on November 11. The final results were announced on Monday, and the deadline for political parties and candidates to file appeals ended on Thursday.

On Tuesday, the IHEC revoked the parliamentary membership of a newly elected lawmaker from Iraq’s Badr Organization, citing the politician’s claim to have formed a “brigade” within the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), allegedly enabling recruitment, including by voters.

Imad Jamil, head of the IHEC media team, told Rudaw that Khazraji, “the winning candidate from the Badr Organization in Baghdad, was disqualified due to bad conduct and reputation.”

Khazraji, the Badr Organization’s top candidate in Baghdad, had received 10,084 votes, all of which will now be invalidated.

The Badr Organization won 18 seats overall, including four in Baghdad.

Under Iraq’s modified proportional representation system based on the Sainte-Lague method, each party’s total votes are divided by a fixed quotient to allocate parliamentary seats.

Following Khazraji’s disqualification, another Badr candidate, Mohammed al-Shuwayli, who received 5,687 votes in Baghdad, is expected to take his seat