Protests against results in Iraqi Parliamentary elections turn violent

[NewYorkExpress]

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/11/5/iraq-protesters-take-to-the-streets-and-clash-with-police

Protests against the results of Iraq’s recent parliamentary election have turned violent in Baghdad, with demonstrators denouncing “fraud” clashing with security forces outside the capital’s high-security Green Zone.

Supporters of pro-Iranian groups, which suffered large losses in the polls, threw stones at security forces, who fired tear gas and shot in the air to disperse the crowd on Friday.


Gunfire could be occasionally heard on the protest site, with two protesters reported dead and dozens wounded on both sides. There was no official confirmation of the casualties.

The results of the October 10 parliamentary vote showed that a bloc led by influential Muslim Shia leader Moqtada al-Sadr won 73 seats,
maintaining its position as the largest group in Iraq’s 329-strong parliament.


The Conquest (Fatah) Alliance – the political arm of the multiparty Hashd al-Shaabi, a pro-Iranian former paramilitary force, won about 15 seats, according to preliminary results. In the last parliament, it held 48, making it the second-largest bloc.

Reporting from Baghdad, Al Jazeera’s Mahmoud Abdelwahed said the disgruntled protesters branded Friday “the last chance for the government [and the] election commission to hold a recount of all the votes”.

Iraq’s independent election commission received more than 1,300 appeals following the elections, lodged by the “Shia cooperation framework” – an ad hoc group consisting mostly of Shia groups that performed poorly in the election.

After an initial assessment, the commission threw out the majority of the complaints, citing a “lack of evidence”, and said it would release its final decisions on the rest of the appeals before submitting them to the Supreme Court for final certification.

[CumbrianLefty]

Any actual evidence of significant vote fraud?

[_.]

It always feels like Western media and intellectuals are quick to jump on the alleged fraud train whenever an election result they don't like occurs, no matter how scant the evidence, but they favor the winner, suddenly they stop questioning...

I don't have any dog in this fight (knowing basically nothing about internal Iraqi politics), but it's an interesting observation...

[Libertas Vel Mors]

It always feels like Western media and intellectuals are quick to jump on the alleged fraud train whenever an election result they don't like occurs, no matter how scant the evidence, but they favor the winner, suddenly they stop questioning...

I don't have any dog in this fight (knowing basically nothing about internal Iraqi politics), but it's an interesting observation...

When the pro-Iranian candidates won in 2018 the Western media didn't talk about voter fraud.

[PSOL]

It always feels like Western media and intellectuals are quick to jump on the alleged fraud train whenever an election result they don't like occurs, no matter how scant the evidence, but they favor the winner, suddenly they stop questioning...

I don't have any dog in this fight (knowing basically nothing about internal Iraqi politics), but it's an interesting observation...

When the pro-Iranian candidates won in 2018 the Western media didn't talk about voter fraud.

They did not, the Sadrists won against them and they still won just recently as the PMF failed to get enough seats.

[_.]

It always feels like Western media and intellectuals are quick to jump on the alleged fraud train whenever an election result they don't like occurs, no matter how scant the evidence, but they favor the winner, suddenly they stop questioning...

I don't have any dog in this fight (knowing basically nothing about internal Iraqi politics), but it's an interesting observation...

When the pro-Iranian candidates won in 2018 the Western media didn't talk about voter fraud.

True

On the other hand:

Palestine 2021
Peru 2021
Poland 2020
Indonesia 2019
Hungary 2018
Pakistan 2018
Turkey 2018
Myanmar 2015
Afghanistan 2014
Mexico 2012

Some of these winners I support, some I don't support, most I have no opinion of, but the Western media has been very clear as to what they think about these leaders, and they jumped on the fraud bandwagon very quickly once their oppositions began protesting.

[Libertas Vel Mors]

It always feels like Western media and intellectuals are quick to jump on the alleged fraud train whenever an election result they don't like occurs, no matter how scant the evidence, but they favor the winner, suddenly they stop questioning...

I don't have any dog in this fight (knowing basically nothing about internal Iraqi politics), but it's an interesting observation...

When the pro-Iranian candidates won in 2018 the Western media didn't talk about voter fraud.

They did not, the Sadrists won against them and they still won just recently as the PMF failed to get enough seats.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adil_Abdul-Mahdi

"Abdul-Mahdi is a former member of the powerful Shi'a party the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, or SIIC.[2] Long based in neighboring Iran, the group opposed a United States administration while holding close ties with the other, U.S.-backed, groups that opposed Saddam Hussein, including the Kurds and the Iraqi National Congress."

"Adil Abdul-Mahdi al-Muntafiki (Arabic: عادل عبد المهدي المنتفكي‎, born 1 January 1942) is an Iraqi politician who served as Prime Minister of Iraq from October 2018 until May 2020."

[Libertas Vel Mors]

It always feels like Western media and intellectuals are quick to jump on the alleged fraud train whenever an election result they don't like occurs, no matter how scant the evidence, but they favor the winner, suddenly they stop questioning...

I don't have any dog in this fight (knowing basically nothing about internal Iraqi politics), but it's an interesting observation...

When the pro-Iranian candidates won in 2018 the Western media didn't talk about voter fraud.

True

On the other hand:

Palestine 2021
Peru 2021
Poland 2020
Indonesia 2019
Hungary 2018
Pakistan 2018
Turkey 2018
Myanmar 2015
Afghanistan 2014
Mexico 2012

Some of these winners I support, some I don't support, most I have no opinion of, but the Western media has been very clear as to what they think about these leaders, and they jumped on the fraud bandwagon very quickly once their oppositions began protesting.

Uh

Are we reading the same news outlets?

Not a single major US news outlet supported the Peru fraud allegations.

[_.]

Uh

Are we reading the same news outlets?

Probably not lol
But in any case I mean the main ones such as NYTimes, Wash Post, BBC

Not a single major US news outlet supported the Peru fraud allegations.

OK

Palestine 2021
Peru 2021
Poland 2020
Indonesia 2019
Hungary 2018
Pakistan 2018
Turkey 2018
Myanmar 2015
Afghanistan 2014
Mexico 2012

[PSOL]

It always feels like Western media and intellectuals are quick to jump on the alleged fraud train whenever an election result they don't like occurs, no matter how scant the evidence, but they favor the winner, suddenly they stop questioning...

I don't have any dog in this fight (knowing basically nothing about internal Iraqi politics), but it's an interesting observation...

When the pro-Iranian candidates won in 2018 the Western media didn't talk about voter fraud.

They did not, the Sadrists won against them and they still won just recently as the PMF failed to get enough seats.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adil_Abdul-Mahdi

"Abdul-Mahdi is a former member of the powerful Shi'a party the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, or SIIC.[2] Long based in neighboring Iran, the group opposed a United States administration while holding close ties with the other, U.S.-backed, groups that opposed Saddam Hussein, including the Kurds and the Iraqi National Congress."

"Adil Abdul-Mahdi al-Muntafiki (Arabic: عادل عبد المهدي المنتفكي‎, born 1 January 1942) is an Iraqi politician who served as Prime Minister of Iraq from October 2018 until May 2020."

This was after the climax of protests in 2018 leaving the Sadrists without enough seats, but otherwise they were the people in charge of the country since then.

[BigSerg]

https://twitter.com/IntelOmarion/status/1457139998910713856?s=20

[CumbrianLefty]

It always feels like Western media and intellectuals are quick to jump on the alleged fraud train whenever an election result they don't like occurs, no matter how scant the evidence, but they favor the winner, suddenly they stop questioning...

I don't have any dog in this fight (knowing basically nothing about internal Iraqi politics), but it's an interesting observation...

When the pro-Iranian candidates won in 2018 the Western media didn't talk about voter fraud.

True

On the other hand:

Palestine 2021
Peru 2021
Poland 2020
Indonesia 2019
Hungary 2018
Pakistan 2018
Turkey 2018
Myanmar 2015
Afghanistan 2014
Mexico 2012

Some of these winners I support, some I don't support, most I have no opinion of, but the Western media has been very clear as to what they think about these leaders, and they jumped on the fraud bandwagon very quickly once their oppositions began protesting.

Uh

Are we reading the same news outlets?

Not a single major US news outlet supported the Peru fraud allegations.

Though of course, they did go big on equally spurious fraud reports in Bolivia a few years earlier.

[Libertas Vel Mors]

Uh

Are we reading the same news outlets?

Probably not lol
But in any case I mean the main ones such as NYTimes, Wash Post, BBC

Not a single major US news outlet supported the Peru fraud allegations.

OK

Palestine 2021
Peru 2021
Poland 2020
Indonesia 2019
Hungary 2018
Pakistan 2018
Turkey 2018
Myanmar 2015
Afghanistan 2014
Mexico 2012

Palestine 2021 didn't even have an election, Poland 2020 I don't recall any media decrying as fraudulent, same for Indonesia 2019, Pakistan 2018, Mexico 2012, and Myanmar 2015. Afghanistan 2014 did have a lot of fraud, and Turkey 2018 and Hungary 2018 no one called fraudulent but did have significant amounts of government interference.

[Libertas Vel Mors]

It always feels like Western media and intellectuals are quick to jump on the alleged fraud train whenever an election result they don't like occurs, no matter how scant the evidence, but they favor the winner, suddenly they stop questioning...

I don't have any dog in this fight (knowing basically nothing about internal Iraqi politics), but it's an interesting observation...

When the pro-Iranian candidates won in 2018 the Western media didn't talk about voter fraud.

True

On the other hand:

Palestine 2021
Peru 2021
Poland 2020
Indonesia 2019
Hungary 2018
Pakistan 2018
Turkey 2018
Myanmar 2015
Afghanistan 2014
Mexico 2012

Some of these winners I support, some I don't support, most I have no opinion of, but the Western media has been very clear as to what they think about these leaders, and they jumped on the fraud bandwagon very quickly once their oppositions began protesting.

Uh

Are we reading the same news outlets?

Not a single major US news outlet supported the Peru fraud allegations.

Though of course, they did go big on equally spurious fraud reports in Bolivia a few years earlier.

I'm sure that if Bolsonaro's men turn off the election results overnight when he's up for re-election you'll have no issue with that too?

[_.]

Poland 2020 I don't recall any media decrying as fraudulent, same for Indonesia 2019, Pakistan 2018, Mexico 2012, and Myanmar 2015.

This I'm actually quite glad to hear in all the above cases.
Especially in the cases of Indonesia 2019 and Pakistan 2018 (and especially the latter, as someone who was inside that country when the election was occurring).

It seemed that you couldn't go a second without hearing extreme coverage being placed onto the spurious and very tenuous claims of fraud being made by the opposition by every third-rate media English media outlet (and some of the big names too), despite the winners making sense considering political factors, polling etc.

Got very annoying
Happy to see that we seem to have moved on from that phase

Afghanistan 2014 did have a lot of fraud, and Turkey 2018 and Hungary 2018 no one called fraudulent but did have significant amounts of government interference.

Ehh

In hindsight their victories make sense once considering the political factors, and this was confirmed by polling... I would disagree that fraud played a large role in these elections personally. (This has nothing to do with my opinions on the politics of the winners... do I look like an Orban supporter?)