Assyrian Democratic Movement Condemns Confiscation of Assyrian Quota Seats in Iraq’s Elections
Five candidates backed by non-Assyrian parties have secured the Assyrian quota seats in Iraq’s elections, a result the Assyrian Democratic Movement denounces as a “confiscation” of Assyrians’ rights.
The Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) on Wednesday released preliminary results for the quota seats allocated to Iraq’s indigenous Assyrian population and other minority groups in the parliamentary elections held on November 11.
The Assyria Post
The results show that all five Assyrian quota seats – officially designated as Christian quota seats – have been won by candidates backed by non-Assyrian political parties. The number of votes received by each winning candidate far exceeds the potential turnout of Assyrian voters, raising serious concerns about electoral manipulation and proxy voting.
The Babylon Movement, an Arab Shiite movement led by Rayan Kildani, secured the Assyrian quota seats for the provinces of Nineveh and Baghdad. The remaining three seats – representing the provinces of Kirkuk, Dohuk, and Erbil – were won by ostensibly independent Assyrian candidates who, according to observers, benefited from proxy votes organized by the KDP Kurdish Party, led by members of the Barzani clan.
Under Iraq’s 2021 election law, the entire country is treated as a single constituency for the Assyrian quota seats. This allows any voter, regardless of religion or ethnicity, to vote for an Assyrian candidate anywhere in Iraq. The loophole has since been exploited by dominant Kurdish and Arab parties to ensure that candidates aligned with their interests secure the Assyrian quota seats. Many of these votes reportedly come from public-sector employees, including police officers, civil servants, and soldiers affiliated with non-Assyrian political parties.
Assyrian Democratic Movement: "A confiscation of our political rights"
The Assyrian Democratic Movement (ADM), the main political party representing Iraq’s Assyrian indigenous population, issued a statement on Wednesday denouncing what it described as the hijacking of Assyrian parliamentary representation.
In its statement, the ADM claimed the "distorted practices witnessed in the competition for the quota seats, which emptied the right of its essence, can only be described as an explicit confiscation of the constitutional and political rights" of the Assyrian people.
It further said the quota seats have turned into a "tool in the hands of dominant forces, exploited to achieve narrow partisan gains by flooding the process with tens of thousands of votes from outside the community. This has stripped the rightful owners of their legitimate representation."
The ADM also pointed to the use of public agencies in the manipulation of the vote: "What makes matters worse is the systematic direction of certain agencies and security forces to channel tens of thousands of votes in favor of specific quota candidates, with the aim of fabricating an appearance of representation that is false and illegitimate."
According to the statement, the unfair competition raised the electoral threshold for the Assyrian quota seats to more than 30,000 votes per seat – an "illogical and unjust number that reflects the scale of interference and manipulation of voters’ will."
The ADM called on Iraq’s dominant parties to end their interference in Assyrian representation: "It is time for the major parties – Kurdish, Shiite, and Sunni – to recognize that their domination of the quota seats represents a flagrant violation of the most basic principles of justice and citizenship, and a transgression against national partnership."
