LONDON: Across Baghdad’s avenues and winding alleys, campaign posters line the streets, creating a festive air. Yet beneath the bright banners, a mood of indifference prevails for many Iraqis; some passers-by ignore the oversize candidate photos, unmoved by the spectacle.
More than two decades after Saddam Hussein’s fall ushered in democratic rule, Iraqis return to the polls for the seventh time on Tuesday, Nov. 11, to choose a new 329-seat parliament from over 7,700 candidates.
While the election unfolds in rare calm, widespread disengagement marks the political climate — a trend experts say could produce the lowest turnout since 2003.
“The electoral mood is apathetic. Many Iraqis view the vote as unlikely to change entrenched power structures, even as the country enjoys relative calm,” Hayder Al-Shakeri, research fellow with the Middle East North Africa program at Chatham House, told Arab News.
A member of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) prepares to cast his vote at a polling station, two days before polls open to the public in a parliamentary election, in Najaf, Iraq, November 9, 2025. (Reuters)
