Australian website: Iraqi elections have turned into a ritual and a dance lacking conviction
Australian website: Iraqi elections have turned into a ritual and a dance lacking conviction
2025-11-14 05:03
Shafaq News – Special Translation
An Australian website highlighted the challenges facing the democratic system in Iraq, attempting to save the system, which it described as having turned into “mere dancing lacking conviction and faith,” through fundamental reforms, accountability, and limiting the clientelist economic system, in order to restore Iraqis’ confidence in their state and get out of what it called “acquired incapacity.”
The Australian website ” The Conversation ” said in a report, translated by Shafaq News Agency, that since the elections did not result in any of the blocs winning a ruling majority in the country, the next government will be formed, as has been the custom since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, through elite bargaining rather than a clear mandate from the voters, considering that the Iraqi elections have turned into a ritual of continuity rather than a means of change .
While the report noted what appeared to be an increase in voter turnout, it argued that all elections held over the past two decades have recycled the same elite figures, sectarian deals, and patronage networks, adding that most Iraqis feel that voting no longer makes them feel involved, but only performs.
The report argued that the Iraqi electoral landscape is partly a simple exchange of jobs for votes, noting that the oil-based economy funds the salaries of approximately 4 million public sector employees, making the state the main source of income .
In addition, the report stated that there are 3.1 million retirees and about 1.5 million families receiving monthly payments from social protection programs, adding that, based on this, the 12 million votes cast in the 2025 elections represent a workforce whose income or family stability depends heavily on government salaries .
The report continued that under such a system, the boundaries between the voter and the employee dissolve, making voting a mechanism of subjugation. It also noted that public sector employees are aware that salaries and promotions often depend on party affiliation, recalling that former Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi expressed this clearly during a recent interview in which he described elections as having become a process of “buying votes.”
After mentioning the 2019 protests that were suppressed, and the recent assassination of candidate Safaa al-Mashhadani, the report stated that for many Iraqis, despite the continuation of the electoral process, faith has been shattered, adding that “Iraq’s democracy remains a dance, maintained for the sake of legitimacy, but lacking conviction.”
The Australian report concluded that the recent elections reveal a crisis deeper than mere disappointment, explaining that “Iraq’s problem lies in the entrenched belief that nothing will ever change, which psychologists call learned helplessness, where repeated disappointment teaches people that their actions make no difference.”
Therefore, the report called for fundamental reforms to break this vicious cycle by reducing Iraq’s dependence on oil revenues and shrinking the clientelist public sector, and by creating a truly free economy more than ever before. Politically, Iraq will need the principle of accountability to hold those in power to account. Until these changes are made, Iraqi elections will remain a “democratic dance… and a mere empty ritual, where the oil will continue to flow, the salaries will continue to be paid, and the votes will continue to be counted.”
shafaq.com
