Iraq election: candidates get to work to win over voters


Sinan Mahmoud
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With only weeks to go until a parliamentary election, Iraq's politicians are not merely putting on their best smiles and making promises but also providing services the government was supposed to.

The election on October 10, the fifth since the end of Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship in 2003, is an important test for Iraq’s fledgling democracy amid widespread sentiment against its political elite. A mass protest movement that began in October 2019 forced a change of government last year and elections are to be held early under a new electoral law.

Since early morning we are here to pave the streets and install lights as we promised you.
Former MP Haider Al Mulla

Iraqis will cast their ballots to choose among 3,249 contenders for the 328 seats in Parliament. The new electoral law means independent candidates are standing for the first time. Out of about 25 million registered voters, slightly more than 23 million have updated their information to become eligible to take part.

Candidates are using every possible method to attract voters, from the traditional billboards and shaking of hands to sponsored advertisements on social media and holding rallies with speeches, song and poetry.

Some candidates are even paving streets, replacing electricity transformers and repairing or installing water treatment plants in rural areas at their own expense.

“Since early morning we are here to pave the streets and install lights as we promised you,” former MP Haider Al Mulla says in a video of him overseeing the work, posted on his Facebook page.

Mr Al Mulla is standing from Baghdad’s western Amiriyah neighbourhood and surrounding areas as a candidate of the Sunni Parliament Speaker Mohammed Al Halbousi’s Taqadum party.

For about three months now, he has been mingling with the people – playing backgammon in cafes, getting his haircut at local barbershops and attending funerals.

In another video, he is seen in hospital with a leukaemia patient in need of a bone-marrow transplant and promising his family to find him treatment in Iraq or abroad.

“Rest assured, the residents of Amiriyah are in my eyes,” he says.

Thousands of campaign posters and billboards dot the cities with promises of a better life and photos of candidates, including politicians blamed for the country’s woes.

“We will make it a state again,” the State of Law coalition promises in a billboard with the picture of its Shiite leader Nouri Al Maliki, the prime minister from 2006 to 2014.

The implicit promise is to strengthen the government's hand in the face of challenges from the mainly Iran-backed Shiite militias whose influence has grown since taking part in the defeat of the Sunni extremist group ISIS in 2017.

The sectarian divide between Sunni and Shiites grew under Mr Al Maliki's prime ministership. He is accused of authoritarianism and blamed for the rise of ISIS in Iraq in 2014.

  • A banner for a candidate is seen in Iraq's second city of Mosul. Iraq's elections will go ahead as planned on October 10, officials say. AFP
    A banner for a candidate is seen in Iraq's second city of Mosul. Iraq's elections will go ahead as planned on October 10, officials say. AFP
  • A woman holds a flag of the Huquq electoral list during a campaign rally in Baghdad. AFP
    A woman holds a flag of the Huquq electoral list during a campaign rally in Baghdad. AFP
  • A banner for a candidate installed on a rooftop in Mosul. AFP
    A banner for a candidate installed on a rooftop in Mosul. AFP
  • Abu Ali Al Askari, right, spokesman of Iraqi Kataeb Hezbollah, during a campaign rally in Baghdad. AFP
    Abu Ali Al Askari, right, spokesman of Iraqi Kataeb Hezbollah, during a campaign rally in Baghdad. AFP
  • Experts are predicting a muted turnout in the October vote because of distrust in the country’s electoral system. AFP
    Experts are predicting a muted turnout in the October vote because of distrust in the country’s electoral system. AFP
  • Candidates of the Huquq electoral list during a campaign rally in Baghdad. AFP
    Candidates of the Huquq electoral list during a campaign rally in Baghdad. AFP
  • A woman holds a flag of the Huquq electoral list during a campaign rally in Baghdad. AFP
    A woman holds a flag of the Huquq electoral list during a campaign rally in Baghdad. AFP
  • Workers prepare to transport campaign banners in Iraq's southern port city of Basra, ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections. AFP
    Workers prepare to transport campaign banners in Iraq's southern port city of Basra, ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections. AFP
  • Workers prepare campaign banners in Iraq's southern port city of Basra ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections. AFP
    Workers prepare campaign banners in Iraq's southern port city of Basra ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections. AFP
  • A worker prepares a campaign poster in Iraq's southern port city of Basra on September 12, 2021, ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections. (Photo by Hussein FALEH / AFP)
    A worker prepares a campaign poster in Iraq's southern port city of Basra on September 12, 2021, ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections. (Photo by Hussein FALEH / AFP)
  • A worker walks by a campaign banner at a workshop in Iraq's southern port city of Basra on, ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections. AFP
    A worker walks by a campaign banner at a workshop in Iraq's southern port city of Basra on, ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections. AFP
  • Workers prepare to transport campaign banners in Iraq's southern port city of Basra, ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections. AFP
    Workers prepare to transport campaign banners in Iraq's southern port city of Basra, ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections. AFP
  • Iraqis pass by-election campaign posters for Iraqi candidates at a street in Fallujah city, 60 kilometres west of Baghdad, Iraq. The Special Representative for the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq, Jeanine Antoinette Hennis-Plasschaert, announced on 07 September 2021, that a group of 130 international experts and around 600 supporting staff will be monitoring Iraq’s upcoming elections. EPA
    Iraqis pass by-election campaign posters for Iraqi candidates at a street in Fallujah city, 60 kilometres west of Baghdad, Iraq. The Special Representative for the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq, Jeanine Antoinette Hennis-Plasschaert, announced on 07 September 2021, that a group of 130 international experts and around 600 supporting staff will be monitoring Iraq’s upcoming elections. EPA
  • The Special Representative for the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq, Jeanine Antoinette Hennis-Plasschaert, speaks during a press conference in Baghdad, Iraq. A group of 130 international experts and around 600 supporting staff will be monitoring Iraq’s upcoming elections, Plasschaert said during the press conference. EPA
    The Special Representative for the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq, Jeanine Antoinette Hennis-Plasschaert, speaks during a press conference in Baghdad, Iraq. A group of 130 international experts and around 600 supporting staff will be monitoring Iraq’s upcoming elections, Plasschaert said during the press conference. EPA

The Fatah coalition, comprised mainly of politicians linked to the Shiite militias, has based its campaign on protecting Iraq from Sunni militants and pro-US elements in Iraq.

“We protect and build our Iraq,” says the Fatah slogan, with a portrait of its leader, Hadi Al Amiri, juxtaposed with its logo featuring a lion’s head.

Mr Al Amiri, who spent decades in Iran and enjoys close ties with its Revolutionary Guard, leads the influential Badr Organisation, one of the main state-sanctioned militias that fought ISIS.

Their rival, the influential Shiite cleric Moqtada Al Sadr, is eyeing the premiership for his followers, saying his Sairoon alliance would secure a political majority in parliament and assume leadership of the next government.

“We will take it and never relinquish it,” a local poet told a political rally to launch its election campaign.

“We will be the biggest bloc and nominate whoever we want,” he told Mr Al Sadr's cheering supporters. “The [next] prime minister will be from Mahdi Army,” he said, referring to the cleric's militia, now renamed as Al Salam Brigades.

Mr Al Sadr is not standing for a seat himself but serves as spiritual leader to Sairoon, which won the most seats in the 2018 election.

The elections have been brought forward from May next year, the end of the current parliament's four-year term, in response to the demand for an overhaul of Iraqi politics by protesters angered by corruption, high unemployment and a lack of government services.

Under the new electoral law, voters can cast ballots for individual candidates, rather than a party, and candidates can stand as independents.

Unlike previous elections, Iraq will be divided into 83 constituencies instead of being treated as one. The former system allotted seats to political parties based on their share of the national vote. Instead, the seats will go to the candidates who receive the most votes in each constituency.

The participation of independent candidates is visible in the presence of small posters put up among the larger ones of political parties.

“I have nominated myself for the sake of my country,” says Alaa Mahdi Al Zubaidi, a tribal sheikh, in a poster hanging from an electricity pole in Baghdad’s Jabiriyah district. Not far away, another poster simply lists the name of the candidate, Zainab Essam Al Tukmachi, and urges young people to vote for her.

Instances of the public tearing up posters or setting them on fire have prompted the authorities to threaten arrests.

Many Iraqis are not convinced by the electoral promises, a sentiment reflected in posts by the popular blogger Mufeed Abass, who writes about Iraqi politics and daily life.

“Whenever I gaze at the candidates’ faces in the posters, I feel the laugh they try to hide,” he wrote on Facebook.

“As if they are saying: ‘I will become a parliament member, get a multimillion salary, secure jobs for my brothers and relatives, get commissions and change all my phone numbers.

“Some are not hiding their laugh because they have already laughed at us and will continue laughing for the rest of the democratic age in Iraq.

“Laughers, the day will come when you will cry.”

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Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026

1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years

If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.

2. E-invoicing in the UAE

Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption. 

3. More tax audits

Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks. 

4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime

Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.

5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit

There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.

6. Further transfer pricing enforcement

Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes. 

7. Limited time periods for audits

Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion. 

8. Pillar 2 implementation 

Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.

9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services

Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations. 

10. Substance and CbC reporting focus

Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity. 

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Ruwais timeline

1971 Abu Dhabi National Oil Company established

1980 Ruwais Housing Complex built, located 10 kilometres away from industrial plants

1982 120,000 bpd capacity Ruwais refinery complex officially inaugurated by the founder of the UAE Sheikh Zayed

1984 Second phase of Ruwais Housing Complex built. Today the 7,000-unit complex houses some 24,000 people.  

1985 The refinery is expanded with the commissioning of a 27,000 b/d hydro cracker complex

2009 Plans announced to build $1.2 billion fertilizer plant in Ruwais, producing urea

2010 Adnoc awards $10bn contracts for expansion of Ruwais refinery, to double capacity from 415,000 bpd

2014 Ruwais 261-outlet shopping mall opens

2014 Production starts at newly expanded Ruwais refinery, providing jet fuel and diesel and allowing the UAE to be self-sufficient for petrol supplies

2014 Etihad Rail begins transportation of sulphur from Shah and Habshan to Ruwais for export

2017 Aldar Academies to operate Adnoc’s schools including in Ruwais from September. Eight schools operate in total within the housing complex.

2018 Adnoc announces plans to invest $3.1 billion on upgrading its Ruwais refinery 

2018 NMC Healthcare selected to manage operations of Ruwais Hospital

2018 Adnoc announces new downstream strategy at event in Abu Dhabi on May 13

Source: The National

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Tuesday, November 26: ‘All the President’s Men’ (1976) by Alan J Pakula
Saturday, December 7: ‘Timbuktu’ (2014) by Abderrahmane Sissako
Saturday, December 21: ‘Rams’ (2015) by Grimur Hakonarson

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  • Drones must weigh 5 kg or less
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Teachers' pay - what you need to know

Pay varies significantly depending on the school, its rating and the curriculum. Here's a rough guide as of January 2021:

- top end schools tend to pay Dh16,000-17,000 a month - plus a monthly housing allowance of up to Dh6,000. These tend to be British curriculum schools rated 'outstanding' or 'very good', followed by American schools

- average salary across curriculums and skill levels is about Dh10,000, recruiters say

- it is becoming more common for schools to provide accommodation, sometimes in an apartment block with other teachers, rather than hand teachers a cash housing allowance

- some strong performing schools have cut back on salaries since the pandemic began, sometimes offering Dh16,000 including the housing allowance, which reflects the slump in rental costs, and sheer demand for jobs

- maths and science teachers are most in demand and some schools will pay up to Dh3,000 more than other teachers in recognition of their technical skills

- at the other end of the market, teachers in some Indian schools, where fees are lower and competition among applicants is intense, can be paid as low as Dh3,000 per month

- in Indian schools, it has also become common for teachers to share residential accommodation, living in a block with colleagues

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Updated: September 14, 2021, 7:52 AM