BAGHDAD — The number of female candidates competing in
Iraq's October parliamentary election will be less than half that of the last
poll three years ago, according to an elections commission source.
اضافة اعلان
In the 2018 legislative election, 2,014 women competed among
a total of 6,982 candidates, but this year the number of women standing will be
just 963 out of a total field of 5,323.
This takes the proportion of female candidates down to 18
percent from 28.8 percent, even as Iraq's constitution reserves a quarter of
parliament's 329 seats for women.
The polls, planned for October 10, will be the first under a
new electoral law, which has reduced the sway of party lists and thus weakened
major parties' influence, giving more scope for independents to stand.
The number of candidates on each party's list has thus been
substantially reduced, automatically reducing the number of female candidates.
Changes in the electoral law came last year, after popular
protests in late 2019 and early 2020 demanding an overhaul of a political system
widely seen as corrupt and overly favorable to established parties.
Some would-be female parliamentarians have complained of
obstacles to their candidacy.
Inas Naji Al-Maksoussi, an independent standing in Wasit
province in eastern Iraq, said she and other women seeking to enter politics
have been subjected to "pressures".
"Some people in my competitors' entourages have
prevented me from campaigning in certain areas of my constituency," she
told AFP.
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