BAGHDAD, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- The final results of Iraq's snap parliamentary elections dealt a blow to the traditional political parties and could further lead to tough and lengthy negotiations to form a new government.
The Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) announced Tuesday the final results of the Oct. 10 elections after the (IHEC's) judicial committee completed all the appeals and complaints submitted earlier by some political parties.
The final results, which still need to be approved by the federal court and President Barham Salih, showed that the Sadrist Movement, led by prominent Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, took the lead with 73 seats.
The Sunni group known as Taqaddum, or Progress, headed by outgoing Parliament Speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi, came in second place with 37 seats.
The State of Law Coalition, headed by former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, came third with 33 seats, while the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), headed by the Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani, came in the fourth place with 31 seats.
However, Sadr's rivals of powerful Shiite blocs such as the al-Fateh (Conquest) Alliance, which includes political groups affiliated with pro-Iran militias, only garnered 17 seats compared with 47 in the 2018 elections.
An Iraqi political analyst, Hashim al-Shamaa, told Xinhua that some Iraqis, mainly in the central and southern parts of the country, voted to withdraw confidence from the parties that have ruled the country since 2003, after they realized that change (in political life) can only happen with the insistence of all the people on it.
However, those political blocs, which lost their leading status in the elections, did not give up easily and began demonstrations and sit-ins, describing the election results as "manipulation and fraud."
Al-Shamaa warned that the ongoing protests may prolong the political stand-off and complicate the political wrangling over who will form the largest bloc in the coming parliament.
According to the Iraqi constitution, the formation of a broader coalition with an absolute majority (165 seats out of 329-seat parliament) is the only way to have the right to nominate a new prime minister.
The expected extreme difficulty of negotiations between the political parties to form the largest bloc in next parliament may prompt the parties to resort to forming a coalition government, which will adopt its decisions unanimously through consensus among all parties.
However, al-Shamaa believes that the formation of a coalition government would be seen as a setback for those who sought to change the traditional political parties.
For his part, political analyst Sabah al-Sheikh told Xinhua that the Sadrists garnered an unparalleled share of parliamentary seats, which gives them more room to maneuver in their talks to form the largest bloc.
One scenario suggests that the Sadrists would ally themselves with the Kurdish Masoud Barzani's KDP, and perhaps the Sunni's Taqaddum, in addition to smaller parties and other individuals who won seats to form the largest bloc in the parliament.
However, al-Sheikh said that "such a scenario will collide with the Kurds' ambitions to annex the oil-rich Kirkuk Province and other disputed areas outside Kurdistan into their semi-autonomous region."
Another possible scenario to form the largest bloc in the parliament is that the Sadrists join al-Maliki's coalition, pro-Iran parties, and some other Shiite parties, in addition to some individual winners.
"This scenario is also difficult because it would need long and complicated negotiations to overcome several insurmountable disputes, including finding an agreement to put the Iranian-backed militias within the Hashd Shaabi under full control of the commander-in-chief of the Iraqi forces," al-Sheikh added.
There is another possibility that "the other Shiite parties would manage to pull the rug out from under the Sadrists and form the largest alliance, then the Sadrists will have to form an opposition group inside the parliament to monitor the government," al-Sheikh added.
"Everything depends on the difficult negotiations between the political blocs, which will certainly take a long time," al-Sheikh concluded. Enditem