PRO-IRANIAN HASHD AL-SHAABI PROTEST AGAINST ‘FRAUD’ IN IRAQI ELECTION

Tue 19 October 2021:

On Tuesday, hundreds of followers of Iraq’s Hashd al-Shaabi – a pro-Iranian former paramilitary organization – demonstrated against “fraud” in recent parliamentary elections in which their movement performed poorly.

According to preliminary data, the Conquest (Fatah) Alliance, the political wing of the multiparty Hashd, won roughly 15 seats in the October 10 election.

It had 48 seats in the previous parliament, making it the second-largest group.

Hundreds of Hashd al-Shaabi supporters gathered on a Baghdad street leading to the Green Zone’s entrance, which houses the US embassy, other diplomatic missions, and government offices, calling for a recount of the October 10 vote.

They denounced United Nations officials responsible for monitoring the elections and helping to prevent voter fraud.

Iraqi activists accuse the Hashd’s armed forces – whose 160,000 fighters are now integrated into Iraq’s state security forces – of being beholden to Iran and acting as an instrument of oppression against critics.

Iran-backed parties with links to militia groups accused of killing some of the nearly 600 people who died in mass protests in 2019 took a blow in the election, winning less seats than in the previous vote, in 2018.

The big winner in the vote – with more than 70 seats in the 329-seat parliament, according to the initial count – was the movement of Moqtada Sadr, a Shia-Muslim leader who campaigned as a nationalist and critic of Iran.

The early elections on October 10 were the first since 2018 and saw a turnout of 41 percent, the lowest level in the post-Saddam Hussein era.

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