19 candidates vie for five Assyrian quota seats in Iraq's upcoming elections
While 19 candidates are competing for the five quota seats, Assyrian political parties are officially boycotting the elections in protest against the Iraqi government’s refusal to close a loophole that allows non-Assyrian groups to exploit their representation.
Iraq will hold parliamentary elections on 11 November 2025, in which five seats are reserved for the country’s Assyrians. The five quota seats, officially designated for "Christians", are distributed across Baghdad, Kirkuk, Erbil, Duhok, and Nineveh provinces.
With the election weeks away, the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) has released a list of 19 candidates contesting the five quota seats across the five governorates.
The majority of the candidates are independents, while five are on the Babylon electoral list, including Aswan Al-Kildani, the brother of Rayan Al-Kildani, a controversial figure who is the head of a militia within the Popular Mobilization Forces, a Shia force aligned with Iran.
A political loophole
While the “Christian quota” was initially intended to ensure representation for the indigenous population, the system has become a political loophole exploited by larger non-Assyrian parties.
Under current rules, any voter – Arab, Kurdish, or otherwise – can vote for the quota candidates, even though only Assyrian candidates may run. This has allowed powerful non-Assyrian blocs to mobilize their voters to decide who represents the Assyrian people in parliament.
In the 2021 election, the Babylon Movement, led by Rayan al-Kildani, won four of the five quota seats – despite widespread accusations that the majority of its votes came from Shiite Muslim voters, not Assyrians. This outcome effectively disenfranchised Assyrians. It was a tactic that the Iranian-aligned actor had learnt from Kurdish political parties who used it previously in the same manner.
In May 2025, Assyrian political movements including the Athra Alliance - composing several Assyrian political parties such as the Assyrian Democratic Movement (Zowaa) called on Baghdad to reform the system and prevent external interference. So far, however, the Iraqi parliament has shown little interest in addressing their demands.
The Assyrian political parties, including the Assyrian Democratic Movement, have said they are officially boycotting the elections until the election law is amended so that only Assyrians can vote for candidates running for the quota seats.
