Baghdad, May 12 (DIN NEWS)<\/b>\u00a0Iraq began voting Saturday in its first parliamentary election since declaring victory over the Islamic State group, with the country hoping to shore up a fragile peace and rebuild.<\/p>\n
Polling stations opened around the conflict-scarred nation under tight security as the jihadists still pose a major security threat despite a sharp fall in violence.<\/p>\n
The ballot comes with tensions surging between key players Iran and the United States over the nuclear deal, sparking fears of a destabilising power struggle over Iraq.<\/p>\n
Roughly 24.5 million voters face a fragmented political landscape five months after IS were ousted, with the dominant Shiites split, the Kurds in disarray and Sunnis sidelined.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi — who took over as IS rampaged across Iraq in 2014 — is angling for a new term, claiming credit for defeating the jihadists and seeing off a Kurdish push for independence.<\/p>\n
But competition from within his Shiite community, the majority group dominating Iraqi politics, should divide the vote and spell lengthy horse-trading to form any government.<\/p>\n
Whoever emerges as premier will face the mammoth task of rebuilding a country left shattered by the battle against IS — with donors already pledging 30 billion.<\/p>\n
Over 15 blood-sodden years since the US-led ouster of Saddam Hussein, disillusionment is widespread with the same old faces from an elite seen as mired in corruption and sectarianism.<\/p>\n
More than two million people remain internally displaced and IS — which has threatened the polls — still had the capacity to launch deadly attacks.<\/p>\n
Iraq has long been a crucible for the rivalry between Iran and the US, with Tehran exerting influence over Shiite politicians and Washington deploying troops to fight IS.<\/p>\n
Overall, just under 7,000 candidates are standing and Iraq’s complex system means no single bloc should get anything near a majority in the 329-seat parliament.<\/p>\n
Abadi — who has balanced off the US and Iran — is facing two leading challengers to his Victory Alliance.<\/p>\n
Ex-premier Nuri al-Maliki is widely reviled for stirring sectarianism and losing territory to IS, but draws support from hardliners.<\/p>\n
Hadi al-Ameri — a former transport minister — led Iran-backed paramilitary units that fought IS alongside Baghdad’s troops and heads a list of ex-combattants.<\/p>\n
Votes in the Sunni heartlands once dominated by IS — including Iraq’s devastated second city Mosul — are up in the air as traditional alliances have been shredded by the fallout of jihadist rule.<\/p>\n
Political forces in the Kurdish community — often seen as potential kingmakers — are also in disarray after a September vote for independence backfired spectacularly.<\/p>\n
The Kurds look set to lose some of their clout on the national stage after Baghdad unleashed a battery of sanctions and seized back disputed oil-rich regions.<\/p>\n
A senior security official told AFP that some 900,000 police and soldiers are on high alert to protect the vote, with airports and borders shut for the day.<\/p>\n
Polling stations are open until 6:00 pm (1500 GMT) and initial results are expected in three days.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Baghdad, May 12 (DIN NEWS)\u00a0Iraq began voting Saturday in its first parliamentary election since declaring victory over the Islamic State group, with the country hoping to shore up a fragile peace and rebuild. Polling stations opened around the conflict-scarred nation under tight security as the jihadists still pose a major security threat despite a sharp fall in violence. The ballot comes with tensions surging between key players Iran and the United States over the nuclear deal, sparking fears of a destabilising power struggle over Iraq. Roughly 24.5 million voters face…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10767,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10766"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10766"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10768,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10766\/revisions\/10768"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}