A Gulf Centre for Human Rights report highlighted attacks on civil society activists and the media, as well as torture against citizens.

Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) has documented a worrying trend of human rights violations that have taken place in Iraq in the lead up to and during the recent elections that took place on October 10.

In its latest report, GCHR highlighted harassment of civil society activists, journalists and the media, as well as the use of torture against citizens.
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Overall, authorities logged at least 77 violations during the election process across Baghdad, Kirkuk, Basra, Erbil, Nineveh, Diyala, Anbar, Wasit and Diwaniyah.

Ministry has paid more than £20m in compensation settlements for abuse claims from Iraqi nationals
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​The investigations into allegations of abuse by British soldiers in Iraq have closed without any prosecutions being brought, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has told Parliament.

In a letter to the House of Commons on Tuesday, Mr Wallace said the Service Police Legacy Investigations assessed 1,291 allegations since July 2017 but had now “officially closed its doors”.

He said that although 178 allegations had been formally pursued through 55 investigations, no soldier had been prosecuted as a result on the inquiry's work.

The investigation reports say that five people were referred to the Service Prosecuting Authority in 2019, but no charges were brought.

​The leaders of the armed groups have refused to accept the results, and promised to fight for the “rights” of their candidates.

Iraq is on a knife edge after inconclusive results in an election triggered by a youth-led uprising and marred by historically low turnout.
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Preliminary results in the sixth parliamentary elections since Saddam Hussein was ousted following the US-led invasion and occupation in 2003 showed populist Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s list leading with 73 seats out of the 329 up for grabs. ​

​The success of candidates backed by Sadr – a fickle character who fought US troops for years through the Mahdi Army militias – was largely at the expense of Iranian-backed militias represented by the Fatah Alliance. Meanwhile, candidates backed by former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki and the current speaker of parliament, Mohamed al-Halbousi, performed well.

The main takeaway so far from the results is the low turnout, with only around 9 million people out of 26 million eligible voters actually voting.

Iran is emerging as the winner in Iraq electoral contest despite the defeats of loyal allies.

​The exchange of accusations between the factions and militias about fraud in Iraq’s Sunday elections cannot hide the fact that Iran is emerging as the winner in the electoral contest despite the defeats of loyal allies.

Analysts point to two main reasons for tempering early conclusions about Iranian setbacks in Iraq.  The first is that Tehran’s allies have in fact obtained enough seats to control parliament. The second is that the electoral results are likely to enable pro-Iran factions to eventually enter into alliances that will provide them with opportunities to lay their hands on the new government.

Intensive contacts are ongoing in Baghdad to build a new alliance between traditionally pro-Iran groups as they jockey for position in the new government, which is expected to be controlled by the Sadrist movement with the support of Tehran.

Iraqi political analysts agree that the exchange of accusations between political groups loyal to Iran after their failure to enter parliament does not change the fact that the path is now open for Iran to easily build parliamentary and governmental alliances so as to maintain its strategic clout in Iraq.

Since the United States led an international “coalition of the willing” to militarily enforce regime change on Iraq in 2003, Iraqis have been called to vote in their fledgling democracy half a dozen times.

As an early voter in the election in December 2005, I recall visiting a polling station for Iraqi nationals in London with my father, who had fled Iraq due to the Baathist state’s persecution decades ago.

Even as a young man, I was highly skeptical as I left the polling station with a newly blue-dyed index finger, the mark of someone who had cast their vote.

​But my father insisted we participate: “We can’t let our voices be silenced,” he told me, hopeful for a new era of mass civil participation in politics in a country he had always known to be either a monarchy or a presidential dictatorship.

 Iraqi voters delivered a sharp rebuke to Iran's allies in an election this week, but loosening the grip of Shi'ite militia from control of the state will still be a politically delicate goal, with the threat of violence always in the background.

The main winner of the election was Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, a populist who has positioned himself as a staunch opponent of both Iran and the United States.

Sadr proclaimed the result a "victory by the people over ... militias". There was elation among his supporters.
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"The most important thing in this election is that foreign countries like Iran didn't interfere in the vote," said Yousef Mohammed, an unemployed 21-year-old in Sadr's vast Baghdad stronghold of Sadr City. "We've been celebrating since last night."

​As polls close in Iraq's parliamentary election, those who spent their time doing virtually anything but voting appear to have come out on top

​Many people turned out on Sunday to take part in Iraq's fifth election since the overthrow of former ruler Saddam Hussein by US forces in 2003.

However, with early participation results emerging, it seems that the majority of the country chose to stay at home.

In a cafe in Baghdad's central Karrada district, one group of men decided that playing cards, smoking shisha and drinking coffee was a better use of their time than taking part in what they saw as a corrupt and useless political process.

Initial turnout in Iraq's parliamentary election on Sunday was 41%, the electoral commission said, in a sign of dwindling trust in political leaders although participation was not nearly as low as election officials had earlier feared.

The established, Shi'ite Islamist-dominated ruling elite, whose most powerful parties have armed wings, is expected to sweep the vote, with the movement led by populist Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who opposes all foreign interference and whose main rivals are Iran-allied Shi'ite groups, seen emerging as parliament's biggest faction.

Such a result would not dramatically alter the balance of power in Iraq or the wider Middle East, say Iraqi officials, foreign diplomats and analysts, but for Iraqis it could mean that a former insurgency leader and conservative Islamist could increase his sway over the government.
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Total turnout was 44.5% in the last election in 2018. The electoral commission said early on Monday the lowest turnout was in Baghdad, with between 31% and 34%.

The country’s militias and politicians only care about lining their own pockets rather than dealing with the concerns of the people.

To paraphrase a famous quote, madness is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results. This about sums up the insanity of Iraq’s dalliance with the democracy that never was since the US instituted regime change in 2003 at gunpoint.
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After the elections this Sunday, Iraqis will have been asked to vote for their future half a dozen times, and the expected results will invariably be the same as they always have been – a further entrenchment of a corrupt political class backed by a coterie of shadowy clergymen, and enforced by the violence of Shia Islamist militias.

Iraq will hold early elections Sunday as a concession to a youth-led protest movement, but in Nasiriyah, the city at the heart of the revolt, most young people won’t vote.

Ahead of the parliamentary polls, the mood in Nasiriyah and much of Iraq is sombre with little hope the election will bring much-needed change to the war-scarred country.

“Elections in Iraq are rigged,” said 21-year-old Anas, echoing a common sentiment among young adults in the impoverished southern city.
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“They are corrupted by arms and money, and I can’t be made to vote with a gun to my head.”