Iraq: underpants and nighties, the desperate gifts of legislative candidates to their voters

Published on : 09/21/2021 – 6:46 PM

Since September 18, these leaflets have become the laughing stock of Iraqis on Twitter. In this tweet, Monday, September 20, we see a pink nightgown, a gift from candidate Achwak al Ghariri of the Azm coalition, and a burgundy nightie, a gift from Nada al Jabouri of the Takadom party.

_{“The competition between Azm’s coalition and the Takadom party goes as far as underwear!” Comments this tweet from September 18. “Nada al Jabouri, thank you for bringing happiness to husbands and wives,” read the leaflet to the right of the candidate’s face.}

Some packages also contain pajamas or nighties, also criticized for their lack of taste, as does this tweet which suggests that the inappropriate choice of the colors of the nightie (burgundy and lemon yellow) would presage bad political choices to come by these candidates. if they were elected.

Male candidates offered them male underwear, typically white underpants. There, we read more generally less explicit messages, linking this gift with the notion of charity towards the most disadvantaged, as in the leaflets of these candidates of the Takadom party and the Huquq movement:

High voltage candidates

According to new Iraqi electoral law, a quota of 25% of women was established in the National Assembly – that is to say 83 seats out of a total of 329 -, which accentuates the competition between the 900 candidates who present themselves in Iraq. A figure much lower than the last legislative elections of 2018, to which 2014 candidates were presented, according to the electoral commission. This drop in the number of female candidates is mainly due to “Pressure” from local militias or the lack of financial support they enjoy compared to male applicants.

Several parties and political figures boycotted the ballot, citing predictable electoral fraud and corruption among candidates.

Conservative Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr first announced that he was participating in the boycott before reconsider his decision later.

Nearly 25 million Iraqis are expected to vote on October 10 to elect 329 members of parliament. Over 3,200 candidates are running, between party affiliates and independents, in the country’s 83 constituencies.

First scheduled for 2022, these legislative elections were brought forward for the first time in June 2021 and then finally in October, to defuse the popular protest movement that arose in October 2019 against corruption and rampant unemployment.