The parliament, which is the Council of Representatives, is the main legislative body in the country. It has 329 seats, nine of which are reserved for representatives of ethnic and religious minorities, including five seats for Christians. The remaining 320 seats are distributed among 18 Iraqi provinces.

In line with the Iraqi legislation, one member of the parliament represents 100,000 people, and women should occupy 25 percent of all seats.

READ MORE: Iraqi Forces Foil Terror Attack During First Elections Since Daesh Defeat — MP

A nominee to the Council of Representatives must be an Iraqi citizen with a college education and no involvement in a crime. The law does not allow members of the Council of Representatives to simultaneously occupy another official position or engage in business activities.

​The election is held every four years. The new lawmakers are elected no later than 45 days before the previous parliament completes its duties. The vote for a lawmaker is cast by direct secret ballot on the single day of universal voting designated by order of the Presidential Council.

READ MORE: Iraqi Parliamentary Vote Guided by Issues, Not Sectarianism

The responsibility for organizing elections rests with the Supreme Independent Election Commission (SIEC) of Iraq.

The election is based on a proportionate system. Once the election threshold is met, mandates are distributed among the lists of candidates in proportion to the votes cast for them. Iraqis living abroad also have the right to vote.

In order to prevent to prevent the election tampering, automatic voter registration (AVR) was introduced.

In 2013, the authorities introduced a new method of distributing mandates – the Sainte-Lague method. It increases the chances that small parties will be elected to the parliament. According to this method, seats are distributed consecutively and are occupied by those who have a higher coefficient calculated on the basis of a formula.

READ MORE: US Is Responsible for Discord in Iraq — Iraqi Ex-Defense Minister

Within 30 days since the start of the first session, members of the Council of Representatives must choose a new president of the country among its members. In the next 15 days, the parliamentary bloc that won the elections should submit for the approval of the president a candidate for the position of the prime minister.

​The Council of Representatives approves the national budget, monitors the activities of the executive, and exercises certain other powers, for instance, approving the heads of the Federal Court of Appeal, the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Department of Court Inspections, and the chief of the Army General Staff. It also ratifies international agreements. By an absolute majority vote, the Council of Representatives can pass a no-confidence motion against any government minister and relieve the president of his duties before his term expires. </s> LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Women standing for election in Iraq have faced an unprecedented deluge of abuse and intimidation - including the publication of sex tapes - to scare them away from politics, the United Nations, candidates and activists said ahead of Saturday’s vote.

Two sex tapes purporting to feature women MPs have been posted on social media, according to Alice Walpole, a senior official in the U.N.’s office in Iraq.

Both women said the tapes were fake but one of them, Intidhar Ahmed Jassim, withdrew from the election last month.

Another candidate came under fire for an outfit she wore after a video from her mobile phone was put on social media after it was stolen.

Posters of women candidates have also been vandalized, according to activists, with beards and moustaches drawn on their faces in some cases.

Rasha Al-Soltani, a candidate in Baghdad, said harassment of all women in public life had become a problem, but politicians were particularly at risk.

“I can’t count the number of cases of online abuse I’ve come across,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The United Nations has branded the harassment “alarming” with the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq this week launching a campaign called #WhyNot or #Shakobeha to encourage women into politics which will run beyond the election.

The poll is the first in Iraq since the defeat of Islamic State militants who seized a swathe of the country in 2014.

Nearly 30 percent of more than 7,000 candidates are women. Under electoral law a quarter of parliament’s 329 seats must be held by women.

Women’s rights activist Hanaa Edwar said “electronic armies” were taking to social media to denigrate women candidates, using misogynist language, including calling them “whores”.

“People have been attacking their (campaign) posters and defaming them on social media. It has hurt their families’ honor and dignity,” she said by phone.

“The attacks are obviously to (make) women withdraw from political life. It’s disgusting. This is not our tradition in Iraq.”

She criticized political parties for failing to defend their own candidates.

Walpole, the Deputy U.N. Special Representative for Iraq, urged women to press on despite the intimidation.

She said there were some “fantastic role models” running for office but her office had received reports of around 10 attacks against female candidates.

“Women are moving in larger numbers into the political sphere. Most of the electorate is absolutely open to that ... but I think there are a few who are intimidated by it,” she said. </s> This female Iraqi MP says she's been threatened because of her work.

Dr Hanan al-Fatlawi explains the issues facing voters, as they choose 329 members for the Council of Representatives. </s> Iraqis head to the polls on Saturday for parliamentary elections.

After the ballot, the 329 members of parliament elected from party lists will be tasked with forming a government and electing a prime minister and president.

Following the 2003 US-led invasion and the fall of Saddam Hussein, Iraq held its first general election in January 2005, selecting a national assembly tasked with drafting a new constitution.

It then held parliamentary elections in December 2005, with two subsequent polls in 2010 and 2014.

Nearly 24.5 million of Iraq’s roughly 38 million people are registered to vote. They are spread out across 18 provinces.

Voters can cast their ballots at 8,959 polling stations across the country, all of which are equipped for electronic voting.

The 285,564 internal refugees eligible to vote can do so in one of 166 polling stations in 70 camps spread across eight provinces in the country.

Voters will select party lists and seats will be divided up according to the number of votes each list secures.

Polling for Iraq’s roughly one million security force personnel and the one million voters living abroad was held ahead of the main election day.

There are 6,990 candidates, including 2,011 women, set to run in the polls.

They will be competing for 329 seats, including nine reserved for minorities — Christians, Shabaks, Yazidis, Mandeans and Fayli Kurds — and 83 for women.

Candidates, selected based on their position in the party, will be elected to four-year terms in parliament.

There are 87 party lists in this year’s election.

The main lists are as follows:

This year, for the first time since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, the ranks of the executed leader’s oldest opponents, the Shiite Dawa Party, are divided.

Abadi, a key figure in the Dawa Party, has put together a list composed largely of civil society personalities that cross sectarian lines.

– CONQUEST ALLIANCE, led by Hadi al-Ameri, head of the Badr organisation and a leader of the mostly Shiite Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary units, which played a key role in rolling back Islamic State (IS) group jihadists.

His candidates officially quit their military roles to run for office.

This list relies principally on the Dawa Party, which Maliki heads.

But while it is popular with public servants hired under his mandate, the list suffers from criticisms aimed at Maliki because IS seized one-third of the country under his watch.

It includes mostly secular groups including the Iraqi Communist Party and Istiqama (Arabic for righteousness), a party of technocrats backed by Sadr, who suspended his Ahrar bloc and called on his 33 ministers not to run in the polls.

– SUNNIS appear on several lists. The main list, “The National Alliance”, is led by Vice President Iyad Allawi — a Shiite who presents himself as secular — and Sunni head of parliament Salim al-Juburi.

Weakened after three years of IS rule, Sunnis could be the biggest losers in this year’s elections.

– KURDS will head to polls with divided ranks to fill their northern autonomous region’s 46 seats, two of which are reserved for Christians.

The main Kurdish parties are the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Kurdistan Patriotic Union (PUK).

There are also three opposition parties: the main Jamaa Islamiya, the newly created New Generation movement, and Goran (Kurdish for change). </s> (CNN) Iraqis voted Saturday in their first parliamentary elections since the defeat of ISIS last year, with the economy, jobs, security and corruption high on the list of voters' concerns as the country seeks to rebuild after years of conflict.

Nearly 7,000 candidates contested 329 seats in the parliament, of which a quarter must go to women . More than 24 million Iraqis registered to vote, according to Iraq's electoral commission, and more than 55,000 polling stations opened across the country.

According to an update from the Iraqi Electoral Commission on Iraqi state TV Al Iraqiya, 44% of eligible voters turned out for the election.

Polls closed at 6 p.m. local time. It could be days before the winners are announced.

"Our dear people have been able to freely and safely cast their votes to choose their representatives," Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said in a statement after polls closed. "I salute our heroic forces, government agencies, state institutions, the media, and all those involved in the success of the electoral process."

However, four civilians were killed in an explosion on their way to vote in the Haweja area just west of Kirkuk on Saturday. A police official said the attack deliberately targeted civilians heading to the polling stations.

As a result, security officials implemented a curfew from midnight to 6 a.m. Sunday in the province of Kirkuk.

Shortly before the polls closed, State of Law Coalition, a rival party headed by former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, expressed concern that "some political forces have resorted to the use of various types of threats and intimidations, and threats to use weapons against polling stations and voters in order to influence their choices and vote for the candidates of some who already are realizing their early defeat."

Under the power-sharing system installed after the 2003 US-led invasion, the position of prime minister is reserved for a Shiite.

Abadi, who's been in power since 2014, is hoping to win back the top job. But the country's Shiite bloc has splintered into five major coalitions, making it hard to predict which will come out on top.

Whoever wins will still need to reach out to other blocs, including Sunni and Kurdish coalitions, to form a governing alliance.

The next prime minister will then face the daunting task of stabilizing a nation scarred by ISIS' rise and still plagued by sectarian division at a critical juncture in its history.

Followers of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr carry a huge Iraqi flag as they take part in a campaign rally in Baghdad on May 4.

The US Secretary of State's office sent a congratulatory note to the Iraqi people, saying: "The United States stands ready to partner with Iraqi leaders as we continue to build a long-term relationship of cooperation and friendship between our two nations -- a strategic partnership based on the Strategic Framework Agreement that will contribute to stability in the region and growing peace and prosperity in Iraq."

Abadi credited with defeating ISIS

Abadi, who heads the Nasr, or Victory, coalition, is widely credited in Iraq with helping to reconstruct the Iraqi Army and defeat ISIS. He hoped to capitalize on that support even as many voters lamented a lack of improvement in their daily lives.

Ahead of the election, Abadi sought to broaden his coalition to bring in significant Sunni figures and avoid overt sectarianism -- and his was the only coalition running in all 18 of Iraq's provinces. He cast his vote Saturday in the Baghdad neighborhood where he was born.

During the war against ISIS, Abadi succeeded in balancing the interests of Iraq's powerful neighbor, Iran, and the United States, as well as significantly improving relations with Saudi Arabia and boosting Iraq's diplomatic standing overall.

Baghdad also regained control of disputed oil-rich fields in Kirkuk last year following a contentious Kurdish independence referendum in September . While that has not endeared Abadi to many Kurds, outside the Kurdish region he is credited with taking a strong position and reasserting central government control without major bloodshed.

But many Iraqis are also frustrated by the limited change they've seen in their daily lives.

Among their complaints are a dearth of job opportunities, a struggling economy and crumbling infrastructure, with frequent power cuts. They also lament poor government services and slow reconstruction in areas such as Tikrit, Falluja and Mosul that were devastated in the battle against ISIS.

Corruption, another major issue, is blamed by many Iraqis for their country's failure to translate the wealth from its natural resources into a better life for all its citizens.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi talks during a campaign rally in the holy city of Najaf on May 3.

Chief rivals

Abadi's chief rivals included Maliki, who leads the State of Law coalition.

During his two terms in power, from 2006 to 2014, Maliki was widely seen as having alienated a large part of the Sunni population and by doing so having prepared the ground for the rise of ISIS. But he maintains significant support and has close ties to Iran.

Nuri al-Maliki speaks during a tribal gathering on May 13, 2017, in Najaf.

Another significant contender was Hadi al-Amiri, who heads the Fatah (Conquest) coalition and also has strong links with Tehran, having spent much of his youth in exile in Iran and fought on the side of the Iranians in the Iran-Iraq War.

Amiri helped command the Hashd al Shaabi, or Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) -- the largely Shiite, pro-Iranian paramilitary force that supported the Iraqi Army in the fight against ISIS.

Hadi al-Amiri, leader of the Fatah Alliance, a coalition of Iranian-supported militia groups, speaks during a campaign rally in Baghdad on May 7.

While the PMU played a vital role in defeating ISIS, some groups under its umbrella were accused of committing sectarian abuses against Sunnis and Kurds, an allegation the PMU denied.

Last week, Iraq's highest Shiite religious authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, urged voters not to reelect "corrupt" lawmakers and warned that "foreign agendas" could undermine the country's ability to carry out a free and fair vote.

In a televised statement delivered by his representative after Friday prayers, al-Sistani urged voters to learn from the past. "Avoid falling into the trap of those who are corrupt and those who have failed, whether they have been tried or not," he said.

It was al-Sistani's call for Iraqis to take up arms against ISIS in 2014 that led to the creation of the Hashd al Shaabi force, which reports directly to the Prime Minister's office.

An Iraqi traffic policeman prepares to vote in Baghdad on May 10. Members of the security forces cast ballots before other voters.

Security fears

Security remained a big issue as Iraqis headed to the polls.

A statement released Friday by the Prime Minister's office urged voters to "choose the best for Iraq and for a brighter future" while also seeking to reassure them that they would be safe.

"We have ordered our heroic security forces to protect the electoral process, and to protect the voters and polling stations, and they are capable of protecting you," it said.

"Our heroic forces have achieved another victory by protecting the democratic process," Abadi said after the elections.

One candidate -- a college professor named Farouq Zarzour -- was assassinated this week in a town near Mosul. He was running for parliament as part of the National Coalition led by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.

A spokesman for ISIS also urged attacks against polling stations and voters in an audio message released last month. </s> • 6,990 candidates from 87 parties are fighting for 329 seats
• 25 percent or 83 of the assembly’s seats are reserved for women candidates
• Security forces are on alert following threats from ISIS militants
• The main contenders are split among Sunni, Shia and Kurdish lists

Nearly 7,000 parliamentary hopefuls from 87 parties are eyeing up the 329-member Council of Representatives of Iraq assembly.

Polls around the country opened earlier today at 5am BST, and will stay open until 4pm BST later today.

The election is being touted as a crucial test of strength for the Shia-led Government which has seen widespread support for fighting ISIS militants.

National security, top-level corruption and outside influence from the West and Iran are expected to play a major role in voting moods today.

The main candidate lists are divided up between the Shia, Sunni and Kurdish coalitions, with the Shia playing a dominant role in Iraqi politics since 2005.

Officials results will be announced to the public within 48 hours of the polls closing and authorities expect a high turnout today.

Here are the latest Iraq election 2018 updates. All times in BST. </s> The fire that ravaged a Baghdad warehouse where votes from May's legislative election were stored ahead of a recount was started "deliberately", Iraqi Interior Minister Qassem al-Araji said Monday.

The fire ripped through the warehouse Sunday ahead of a vote recount prompted by allegations of fraud during the election that saw a surprise victory for a populist cleric and Iraqi voters dumping the old guard.

"There is no doubt that it was a deliberate act and I am personally following up on the investigation with the criminal police and the committee tasked with probing the fire," Araji said.

Firefighters brought the blaze under control several hours after it broke out in a warehouse located in Al-Russafa, one of the largest voting districts in eastern Baghdad.

Around 60 percent of the two million voters in Baghdad cast their ballots in the May 12 election in that district.

The extent of the damage caused to ballot boxes was still unclear but some officials have suggested that most of them had been spared.

On Sunday an AFP reporter saw warehouse staff running out of the building as smoke billowed overhead, carrying blue and white ballot boxes to safety.

"Election material, including maybe ballot boxes, were burned but most of the ballot boxes were stored in another building and have been preserved," interior ministry spokesman General Saad Maan told reporters on Sunday.

The fire erupted as the Supreme Council of Justice on Sunday appointed nine jugdes to supervise a manual vote recount which had been ordered by Iraq's outgoing parliament.

The legislature on Wednesday also sacked the nine-member independent commission which oversaw the polls.

The vote was won by populist Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr's electoral alliance with communists, as long-time political figures were pushed out by Iraqi voters hoping for change in a country mired in conflict and corruption.

But the result was contested following allegations of fraud namely by the veteran politicians led by parliamentary speaker Salim al-Juburi. </s> Iraq's election commission says the results of the first national vote since declaring victory over ISIL are expected within two days.

The vote on Saturday saw a record low turnout, with 44 percent of eligible voters casting ballots. No election since 2003 has had turnout below 60 percent. More than 10 million Iraqis voted.

Polling station officials blamed the low turnout on a combination of tight security measures, voter apathy and irregularities linked to a new electronic voting system.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi is running to keep his post. His chief rivals are political parties with closer ties to Iran, as well as the influential cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, a staunch nationalist who campaigned against government corruption.

Nearly 7,000 candidates from dozens of political alliances are competing for the 329 seats in parliament.

Al-Abadi, who heads the Nasr (Victory) coalition, is seen by some as a front runner, but he faces stiff competition from Hadi al-Amiri, a paramilitary commander heading the Fatah alliance.

Another strong contender is Nouri al-Maliki, a former prime minister who is being seen as a possible kingmaker in the vote.

The results are expected within 48 hours of the vote, according to the independent body overseeing the process.

By Saturday afternoon, less than 20 percent of residents in the capital, Baghdad, had turned out to vote, according to the Iraqi High Electoral Commission (IHEC).

Initial IHEC reports put the overall turnout at 32 percent, compared to about 60 percent in the last elections four years ago.

Commenting on the low participation of voters, Renad Mansour, a research fellow at UK-based think tank Chatham House, told Al Jazeera: "Many Iraqis, especially in Sunni areas do not view the election as legitimate. Many boycotted the vote because they do not believe it will make a difference."

The low turnout was also partly blamed on a curfew and vehicle ban that came into force after midnight across several provinces in Iraq.

The government restrictions left the streets of the capital, Baghdad, looking empty during the early hours of the vote.

With public transport also banned, only vehicles belonging to security forces and politicians were allowed to move around.

"The polling stations were far away from us and without cars allowed, it was really hard to get to the polling stations," said Amal, a housewife living in central Baghdad.

The ban was partially lifted by al-Abadi later in the day, in an effort to improve turnout

Meanwhile, only 285,000 people out of Iraq's displaced population of two million had registered to vote, the electoral commission said.

The poll saw the implementation of a new electronic voting system for the first time in a bid to reduce electoral fraud.

Yet, many wanting to cast their ballots at different polling stations across the country complained of irregularities.

"We visited IHEC and checked the biometric system, we were very surprised how faulty the workflow and management was, we reported this," Hiwa Afandi, the head of the Kurdistan Regional Government's department of information technology, said in a post on Twitter.

"Not using technology is better than a faulty implementation. Auditing and certifying is a must for such application where trust is a big issue," he added.

The IHEC insisted that despite the irregularities, voting hours would not be extended because the electronic voting system had been scheduled to close at 6pm (15:00 GMT).

Negotiations over the formation of a new government are expected to drag on as no single alliance is expected to able to win the 165 seats required for an outright majority.

Instead, the bloc that wins the most seats will have to rely to the support of smaller grouping to achieve majority.

Until a new prime minister is chosen, al-Abadi will remain in office and retain all his powers.

Political power in Iraq is traditionally divided along sectarian lines among the offices of prime minister, president and speaker of parliament.

Since the first elections following the 2003 US-led toppling of Saddam Hussein, the Shia majority has held the position of prime minister, while the Kurds have held the presidency and the Sunnis the post of speaker of parliament.

The constitution sets a quota for female representation, stating that no less than one-fourth of parliament members must be women.

Once the election results are ratified by Iraq's Supreme Court, parliament is required to meet within 15 days.

Its eldest member will chair the first session, during which a speaker will be elected. Parliament must then elect a president by a two-thirds majority vote within 30 days of its first meeting.

The president is charged with naming a member of the largest bloc in parliament - the prime minister-designate - to form a cabinet within 30 days. If that individual fails, the president must nominate a new person for the post of prime minister.

In the past, forming a government has taken up to eight months. In 2005, allegations of vote-rigging delayed the ratification of election results for weeks.

Kurdish areas - where a banned referendum on secession was held last year - witnessed a relatively higher voter turnout compared to other parts across the country, according to reporters on the ground.

"In Kurdish areas, mobilisation might have worked in getting people out to vote. One of the main reasons behind this is that the referendum made Kurds realise that they cannot ignore Baghdad because when they did during the referendum, it backfired," explained Mansour, the Chatham House analyst.

Following the September 2017 referendum, the Iraqi military seized control of disputed territories, including the city of Kirkuk.

The territorial losses left many Kurds disillusioned by their leaders.

As a result, the two main parties that have traditionally dominated the local political scene - the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) – are now expected to see a drop in their share of the vote.

In contrast, smaller political forces such as Goran (Change), the Democracy and Justice Party - led by former senior PUK official Barham Saleh - and the Kurdistan Islamic Group - also known as Komalk led by Ali Bapir - are likely to record a strong poll showing.

In Baghdad, some Sunni voters expressed hope the election would help Iraq move beyond sectarian politics and become more inclusive.

"I voted for new people to come into the government," Haitham Hasballah, from the capital's neighbourhood of Mansouria, told Al Jazeera.

"The political situation in Iraq has been getting from bad to worse, so we definitely need new faces."

Another voter, Shaker Mahmoud, told Al Jazeera: "I voted for new people. I don't want anyone form the old government. I'm hopeful that change will take Iraq towards a positive direction."

Still, others in central Baghdad said they voted for al-Abadi, giving him credit for Iraq's military victory over ISIL.

After ISIL overran nearly a third of Iraq in the summer of 2014, the group launched waves of suicide bombings targeting civilians in Baghdad and in other areas of government-controlled territory.

But with support from a US-led coalition and Iran, al-Abadi oversaw a fierce war against the group's fighters and declared victory over ISIL in December 2017.

Despite al-Abadi's military achievements, Iraq continues to struggle with an economic downturn sparked in part by a drop in global oil prices, entrenched corruption and years of political gridlock.

The war left more than two million Iraqis, mostly Sunnis, displaced from their homes, with cities, towns and villages suffering heavy destruction. Repairing infrastructure across Anbar and Nineveh provinces, both majority Sunni areas, will cost tens of billions of dollars.

The election comes at a critical juncture in Iraq's relations with Iran and the US.

Both countries are allies of the Iraqi government but their bilateral ties are increasingly strained.

Additional reporting by Arwa Ibrahim from Doha, and Osama al-Zein and Bakr Ubaidi in Baghdad </s> IRAQ – Iraqis are going to the polls Saturday to vote in their first parliamentary elections since the defeat of ISIS last year, with the economy, jobs, security and corruption high on the list of voters’ concerns as the country seeks to rebuild after years of conflict.

Nearly 7,000 candidates are contesting 329 seats in the parliament, of which a quarter must go to women. More than 24 million Iraqis have registered to vote, according to Iraq’s electoral commission, with more than 55,000 polling stations open across the country.

Under the power-sharing system brought in after the 2003 US-led invasion, the position of prime minister is reserved for a Shiite.

Incumbent Haider al-Abadi, who’s been in power since 2014, is hoping to win back the top job. But the country’s Shiite bloc has splintered into five major coalitions, making it hard to predict which will come out on top.

Whoever wins will still need to reach out to other blocs, including Sunni and Kurdish coalitions, to form a governing alliance.

The next prime minister will then face the daunting task of stabilizing a nation scarred by ISIS’ rise and still plagued by sectarian division at a critical juncture in its history.

Abadi, who heads the Nasr, or Victory, coalition, is widely credited in Iraq with helping to reconstruct the Iraqi Army and defeat ISIS. He will hope to capitalize on that support even as many voters lament a lack of improvement in their daily lives.

Ahead of the election, Abadi sought to broaden his coalition to bring in significant Sunni figures and avoid overt sectarianism — and his is the only coalition running in all 18 of Iraq’s provinces. He cast his vote Saturday in the Baghdad neighborhood where he was born.

During the war against ISIS, Abadi succeeded in balancing the interests of Iraq’s powerful neighbor, Iran, and the United States, as well as significantly improving relations with Saudi Arabia and boosting Iraq’s diplomatic standing overall.

Baghdad also regained control of disputed oil-rich fields in Kirkuk last year following a contentious Kurdish independence referendum in September. While that has not endeared Abadi to many Kurds, outside the Kurdish region he is credited with taking a strong position and reasserting central government control without major bloodshed.

But many Iraqis are also frustrated by the limited change they’ve seen in their daily lives.

Among their complaints are a dearth of job opportunities, a struggling economy and crumbling infrastructure, with frequent power cuts. They also lament poor government services and slow reconstruction in areas such as Tikrit, Falluja and Mosul that were devastated in the battle against ISIS.

Corruption is another major issue, blamed by many Iraqis for their country’s failure to translate the wealth from its natural resources into a better life for all its citizens.

Abadi’s chief rivals include former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who leads the State of Law coalition.

During his two terms in power, from 2006 to 2014, Maliki was widely seen as having alienated a large part of the Sunni population and by doing so having prepared the ground for the rise of ISIS. But he maintains significant support and has close ties to Iran.

Another significant contender is Hadi al-Amiri, who heads the Fatah (Conquest) coalition and also has strong links with Tehran, having spent much of his youth in exile in Iran and fought on the side of the Iranians in the Iran-Iraq War.

Amiri helped command the Hashd al Shaabi, or Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) — the largely Shiite, pro-Iranian paramilitary force that supported the Iraqi Army in the fight against ISIS.

While the PMU played a vital role in defeating ISIS, some groups under its umbrella were accused of committing sectarian abuses against Sunnis and Kurds, an allegation the PMU denied.

Last week, Iraq’s highest Shiite religious authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, urged voters not to reelect “corrupt” lawmakers and warned that “foreign agendas” could undermine the country’s ability to carry out a free and fair vote.

In a televised statement delivered by his representative after Friday prayers, al-Sistani urged voters to learn from the past. “Avoid falling into the trap of those who are corrupt and those who have failed, whether they have been tried or not,” he said.

It was al-Sistani’s call for Iraqis to take up arms against ISIS in 2014 that led to the creation of the Hashd al Shaabi force, which reports directly to the Prime Minister’s office.

There’s little doubt security remains a big issue as Iraq goes to the polls.

A statement released Friday by the Prime Minister’s office urged voters to “choose the best for Iraq and for a brighter future” while also seeking to reassure them that they would be safe.

“We have ordered our heroic security forces to protect the electoral process, and to protect the voters and polling stations, and they are capable of protecting you,” it said.

One candidate — a college professor named Farouq Zarzour — was assassinated this week in a town near Mosul. He was running for parliament as part of the National Coalition led by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.

A spokesman for ISIS also urged attacks against polling stations and voters in an audio message released last month.

Abadi may have declared the defeat of ISIS last September but the extremist group remains a threat, with a continued presence in small pockets of the country and sleeper cells elsewhere.
Voters in Iraq go to the polls. One quarter of the 329 seats in the Council of Representatives must go to women.