“The Iraqi people went to the polls today (Sunday) to run in the early elections, which, given the continuing failure of the US nationalization project, will leave nothing but disappointment for the thousands of Iraqis who wanted to hold it.”
“Two years ago, thousands of Iraqi protesters took to the streets to demand an end to the corruption, bad governance and political system created by the US imposed after the fall of Saddam Hussein,” Rashatoudi wrote in an analysis of today’s Iraqi elections. Became the instrument of plunder of the country and its national resources.
The sectarian quota system, known as Muhassa, was created by Saddam’s opponents in exile and adopted after the US-led invasion of Iraq, as they believed that balancing the various sects would lead to the formation of a mechanism. Sustainable politics will lead.
However, although the Mohasses system was designed to divide positions and power based on sectarian or ethnic quotas, today it has become, in practice, a mechanism in which corruption is politically justified in the interests of certain groups and their supporters. Damn.
Ministries and government agencies are also divided along factional lines, leading to an increase in “kinship”. It is on this basis that Muhassa has led to the formation of a fat government system that consumes about a quarter of Iraq’s GDP and trades ministers and top executives in jobs and contracts.
The Iraqi government currently pays the salaries of 11 million of the country’s 40 million people, of whom 11,500 are known as “spirit workers” who do not work anywhere but still receive salaries from the Iraqi government! Reports from 2020 indicate that Iraqi government wage payments have increased by 400 percent over the past 15 years.
Mohasses was supposed to prevent a particular party or ethnic group from seizing power, and consequently from suppressing other ethnic groups, but this “pristine thinking” of Washington instead created a political impasse that left parliament fragmented and prime ministers in shaky positions. Even those who intended to serve could not do anything; As a result, there were large-scale demonstrations in 2019, which was not surprising, as the political system was inefficient.
In May 2020, Mustafa al-Kazemi took over as prime minister following protests known as the “October Revolution” and the fall of the government. The former journalist and intelligence chief, although apparently hearing the call for early elections, does not seem to intend to fundamentally reform the electoral mechanism and politics.
Although al-Kadhimi held the 2022 elections today and his prime ministership has seen electoral reforms, critics say the number is not small, not only will it not work, but it is feared that the US-imposed system, Instill the product more and more in the foundation of the Iraqi political mechanism.
Despite some declared reforms, these “improvements” have not targeted the principle of this dysfunctional and broken system. With a change from the previous election routine, Iraq’s fifth election since the US occupation will be held in 83 polling stations. Nine of the 329 seats are reserved for minorities, including five for Christians and 25 percent for women.
Dissatisfaction with these limited reforms was evident in the Iraqi people’s call for a boycott of the elections; So much so that even those who called for early voting were skeptical about whether to vote or not. However, a general boycott of the election seemed unlikely after Grand Ayatollah Sistani, Iraq’s Shiite religious leader, issued a statement urging the people to go to the polls and enjoy their democratic rights despite “election shortcomings”. .
Contrary to electoral changes, experts and forecasters have no hope of fundamental change and believe that a separate parliament will still be formed in which no party will come close to gaining a majority. Newcomers to the Tishrin movement will also hold between 18 and 26 seats in parliament, which seems a great achievement given the non-aligned nature of the parliament, but is small compared to the 329 seats in parliament.
As a result, despite these early elections, the question remains: Will anyone be found to save Iraq from this US-imposed system? A system whose seeds were planted with the aim of establishing democracy, but today it has produced nothing but deadlock and corruption. In any case, al-Kadhimi’s coming to power is the product of a power-sharing agreement in which Iraq’s 100-member parliament was forced to elect a prime minister with the least tension with other parties, instead of choosing the best option for prime minister. To follow; His successor will be elected in the same way and with the same criteria; Unless he himself remains in office after the election.
It is worth noting that many Iraqis do not remember anything else.
At a time when more than 60 percent of the country’s population is under the age of 25, many citizens are too young to remember the days of Saddam’s Ba’athist regime, a socialist regime that was initially accompanied by rapid economic growth and later brutal repression. Saddam’s war and sectarian character were mentioned. Instead, many of the country’s youth have only grown up experiencing extreme factionalism, widespread corruption, and mismanagement perpetuated by the US-imposed political system. The US-rebuilt Iraq has nothing to offer these young people unless change Fundamental occur.
In any case, what is sprinkling salt on this wound is that the American forces that entered the country 18 years ago under the pretext of seizing weapons of mass destruction of the Ba’athist leader, today with the fall of Saddam and the construction of a new Iraq, this land is still there. We all know that no weapons were found, and this suggests that the US aggression may have had other reasons.
Earlier this year, Baghdad and Washington agreed to withdraw all US troops from Iraq by the end of the year, and on Thursday the Iraqi army confirmed that the evacuation of the remaining 2,500 US troops from Iraq had finally begun.
But while Iraq is likely to get rid of US troops soon, it is unlikely that it will abandon the flawed US-imposed system of government in Iraq, which has proven over the past two decades that it sacrifices enormous numbers to serve a limited number of people. .
