After Monday’s vote, preliminary results of the provincial council election show pro-Iran Shiite parties in the lead in the majority of the country’s 15 provinces subject to voting.
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With our correspondent in Baghdad, Marie-Charlotte Roupie
Already in the majority in Parliament in the Coordination Framework alliance, the Shiite parties close to Iran now share the victory in a large majority of provinces after counting 94% of the votes.
The three main Shiite groups are led by former prime ministers and a leader of ex-Hachd el-Chaabi paramilitary factions. In the absence of their main nationalist Shiite rival, Moqtada el-Sadr, they have established themselves in the center and south of the country.
The Taqadom party, of Sunni leader Mohammed el-Halboussi, recently dismissed from his post as president of Parliament, won its stronghold of al-Anbar, but also Baghdad, where it is closely followed by these Shiite parties.
Strong abstention
The seats on the provincial councils will then have to be distributed and elected officials will have to appoint provincial governors and distribute the health and education budgets, among others.
This election therefore confirms the influence of the parties which supported the formation of the government of Mohammed Shia el-Soudani.
But one factor cannot be forgotten in these elections: less than 7 million voters out of more than 16 million registered went to the polls.