BAGHDAD (Dispatches) — Iraqis voted Sunday in parliamentary elections held months ahead of schedule as a concession to youth-led protests against corruption and mismanagement.
Polls closed at 1500 GMT (1800 local time) following 11 hours of voting. Results are expected within the next 24 hours, according to the independent body that oversees Iraq’s election. But negotiations to choose a prime minister tasked with forming a government are expected to drag on for weeks or even months.
The election was the sixth held since the fall of Saddam Hussein after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Minutes after polls closed, fireworks organized by Baghdad’s municipality went off in the city’s landmark Tahrir Square, where demonstrators had set up tents for several months starting in October 2019. The protests fizzled out by February of the following year.
Today, the square stands largely empty. The country faces huge economic and security challenges, with most Iraqis longing for change.
Iraq’s Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, whose chances for a second term will be determined by the results of the election, urged Iraqis to vote in large numbers.
“Get out and vote, and change your future,” said al-Kadhimi, repeating the phrase, “get out” three times after casting his ballot at a school in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, home to foreign embassies and government offices.
Iraq’s top cleric and a widely respected authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, had called for a large turnout, saying that voting remained the best way for Iraqis to take part in shaping their country’s future.

Iraqi President Barham Salih on Saturday said he believed a good turnout would be a “turning point” and a “defining moment.”
“It will close the road to saboteurs and to those who try to manipulate the fate of the country and the future of its people,” Salih stated.
Under Iraq’s laws, the winner

of Sunday’s vote gets to choose the country’s next prime minister, but it’s unlikely any of the competing coalitions can secure a clear majority. That will require a lengthy process involving backroom negotiations to select a consensus prime minister and agree on a new coalition government. It took eight months of political wrangling to form a government after the 2018 elections.
Groups drawn from Iraq’s majority Shia Muslims dominate the electoral landscape, with a tight race expected between Iraq’s influential cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, and the Fatah Alliance, led by paramilitary leader Hadi al-Ameri, which came in second in the previous election.
The Fatah Alliance is comprised of parties and affiliated with the Popular Mobilization Forces, an umbrella group of militias that rose to prominence during the war against the Daesh terrorist group. It includes some of the most prominent anti-terror factions, such as the Asaib Ahl al-Haq.
The election is the first since the fall of Saddam to proceed without a curfew in place, reflecting the significantly improved security situation in the country following the defeat of IS in 2017. Previous votes were marred by fighting and deadly bomb attacks that have plagued the country for decades.
More than 250,000 security personnel across the country were tasked with protecting the vote. Soldiers, police and anti-terrorism forces fanned out and deployed outside polling stations, some of which were ringed by barbed wire. Voters were patted down and searched.
As a security precaution, Iraq closed its airspace and land border crossings and scrambled its air force from Saturday night until early Monday morning.
In another first, Sunday’s election took place under a new election law that divides Iraq into smaller constituencies — another demand of the activists who took part in the 2019 protests — and allows for more independent candidates.