A DEAD CANDIDATE WON A SEAT IN IRAQ’S PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS

Thu 14 October 2021:

A candidate in the Iraqi parliamentary elections has won a seat in Baghdad’s parliament, despite having passed away in August.

The independent candidate, Ansam Manuel Iskandar, was amongst the list of winners in the elections this week, obtaining 2,397 votes and winning one of the five seats allocated for the country’s Christian community under the quota system.

Iskandar’s victory, however, was not to be enjoyed, as many social media users expressed their anger that she was allowed to run for the elections, despite having died almost two months ago.

In a Facebook post published on her page by her family, they confirmed that “she died on 24 August, after being infected with the Coronavirus.” They also responded to the angry comments by users, saying that they allowed her to be elected in order to “immortalize her and their belief in her and their unwillingness to have their votes in vain.”

The family insisted that, even though some did not know about her death, “she was elected because she has a valuable career in the field of work and a cooperative path in the field of humanity and stands by the youth.”

They justified Iskandar’s continued candidacy by referencing her “great impact on the youth,” and especially due to the fact that “she did not have any electoral propaganda, or a picture hanging in the street, or an advertisement on Facebook.”

In Iraq’s elections held on Sunday—which had a record low voter turnout at 41 per cent—saw the party of Iraqi Shia cleric, Muqtada Al-Sadr, lead and win most of the seats, followed by the Taqaddoum (progress) bloc of the Parliament Speaker, Mohamed Al-Halbousi, in second place and the State of Law bloc led by former Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, coming third.

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