


'With just one month to go before the parliamentary elections, I feel compelled to take this opportunity to extend an invitation to all Iraqis, and Christians in particular, to participate en masse' by going to the polls and voting for candidates 'who are best suited to serve the people without discrimination'. This is what the Chaldean primate of Baghdad, Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako, wrote in a message published on the patriarchate's website and sent to AsiaNews less than a month before a fundamental election that will shape the future of the nation.
This is all the more important today, when the entire region seems to be undergoing tensions and changes, clashes between opposing interests and attempts at mediation, starting with the peace plan for Gaza signed yesterday under the aegis of the United States for a new Middle East. 'They must vote,' the cardinal continues, 'for capable people, known for their integrity and honesty, who respect the pluralism and diversity of religions and ethnicities that characterise Iraq and who believe in sovereignty, progress and stability.'
Fragmentation and disillusionment
The electoral landscape in Iraq, a nation that will go to the polls on 11 November for the sixth parliamentary elections since the fall of Saddam Hussein, is characterised by a mixture of political fragmentation, public disillusionment and shifting political alliances. As the Chaldean Patriarch pointed out, there is no shortage of problems of integrity and competence among the candidates themselves, in a country where corruption and malfeasance have too often prevailed in public life to the detriment of citizens, especially ethnic and religious minorities.
Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, who is seeking a second term thanks to high popular support, faces opposition from rival Shia political leaders and a political system designed to prevent the consolidation of power. Almost a year after the local elections in the Kurdish-majority north, the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan are approaching the new deadline without having formed a government, while Sunni political leaders remain divided. In this conflictual context, many Iraqis will choose not to participate, questioning the very importance of the elections and the decision-making power of the electorate in a country permeated by strong instability.
Furthermore, the election campaign has reinforced the usual division between two main groups: those who fight for power or seek to retain it, and those who harbour vague and unrealistic hopes for change or who simply participate as decorative elements. This division is not only political, but also financial. On the one hand, there are poor candidates who run modest and sober campaigns, trying to attract voters through ideas and programmes; on the other, there are wealthy contenders who orchestrate lavish initiatives, relying on hype, media hype and visual spectacle.
Most of the latter come from political forces that have ruled Iraq for the past two decades with unresolved legal and moral issues. Figures such as former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Badr militia leader Hadi al-Amiri and Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq commander Qais al-Khazali have all demonstrated that they have considerable financial resources and influence within the state. In this way, the elections risk turning from a positive democratic process into a negative cycle that perpetuates corruption, bringing the same figures back to power.
Christians and representation
It is in this context of uncertainty and critical issues that Patriarch Sako has intervened, having already been at the forefront of the fight against corruption and the attempts of armed groups and militias to claim to represent the "interests" of Christians on several occasions in the past. 'The Chaldean Church,' the cardinal emphasises, "refuses to allow Christians to be represented by individuals whose corruption has been denounced and acclaimed, or by armed groups that control their resources and dominate their cities in the Nineveh Plains. We will not accept that the Christian component becomes fuel for these foreign actors," with reference, among others, to Shiite militias and movements - many of them linked to Tehran - that exploit the Christian component for mere power. An example of this is the bitter clash that has been going on for years between the patriarch himself and the self-proclaimed Christian leader "Rayan the Chaldean", leader of the notorious pro-Iranian Babylon Brigades.
'We had officially asked some relevant government bodies, such as the Electoral Commission, to limit voting to the Christian community,' the cardinal's statement continues, 'as a legal solution that would guarantee its representation.' 'The Chaldean, Assyrian and Syriac parties did the same,' he warns, 'but no one listened to us. Unfortunately, for over 15 years, the Iraqi government has failed to protect the rights of minorities, to adopt binding measures to ensure fairness and to preserve their representation and role.' 'Christians will not give up despite their wounds and will work with determination to realise this constitutional right that guarantees their future and consolidates their survival. The Chaldean Church,' concludes Cardinal Sako, 'will not sell itself short, will not surrender to injustice, and its loyalty to Iraq and its love for the Iraqi people will remain intact.'
Pretextual exclusions
The issue of representation and freedom of participation is certainly not a secondary element in the life of minorities and their participation in the political and institutional arena of the country. Proof of this is the recent move, described as unprecedented by analysts and experts, by the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) to exclude Chaldean and Assyrian candidates on 'spurious' grounds. One example above all is the rejection of Issam Behnam Matti, the Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian candidate representing the Christian quota in the province of Nineveh. Matti Yakub, mayor of the Hamdaniya district until the beginning of this year when he was replaced by a candidate affiliated with Rayan the Chaldean, was excluded for alleged violation of Article 7 (fifth) of the amended Electoral Law No. 12 of 2018 of the Iraqi Council of Representatives.
Despite a formal appeal against this and other high-profile exclusions based on the same provision, the Commission upheld its decisions. This decision has fuelled concerns about the transparency of the law's application, particularly with regard to subjective behavioural standards or procedural violations.
Scholars and observers explain that such rulings risk undermining the chances of minorities obtaining genuine parliamentary representation in a 329-seat Assembly, of which only nine seats are reserved for minorities (five for Christians).
The controversy goes beyond legal technicalities and raises deeper questions about the political participation of Iraqi minorities since 2003 and the ability of the electoral system to safeguard demographic and political diversity. For the upcoming elections, the Commission has approved the following Christian representatives, some of whom are of Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian origin: Baidaa Khidhir Bahnam Yakub, Dureid Jameel Ishoh Simaan, Farouq Hanna Atto Shamoun, Hiba Jirjis Abdul-Ahad al-Qass and Aswan Salim Sadiq Sawa al-Kaldani.
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