Shafaq News – Baghdad

On Friday, the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) announced that 7,900 candidates will compete in the upcoming parliamentary elections scheduled for November 11, 2025.

Looking back at previous elections, the number of candidates has fluctuated over time. The first election in 2005 included 6,655 candidates, followed by a slight decline to 6,281 in 2010.

The highest level of participation came in 2014, when 9,040 candidates registered amid the rise of ISIS across the country.

Following ISIS’s defeat, candidate numbers fell to 7,368 in the 2018 elections. This downward trend continued in the early elections held in 2021, called in response to the October protest movement, which saw the lowest turnout with 3,227 candidates.

Notably, each election was conducted under a different electoral system, with changes in the electoral quota, vote-counting methods, and the design of electoral districts.