Shafaq News – Nineveh

Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) on Monday resolved the dispute over Nineveh’s women’s quota seat by awarding it to Hadi al-Amiri’s Badr Organization, ending a standoff with Thabit al-Abbasi’s Determination (Al-Hasm al-Watani) coalition.

Both blocs had secured two seats each in the male category, but the final quota seat depended on total vote count. Based on that criterion, IHEC granted the seat to Badr candidate Anwar Jiyad.

Ali Aghwan, political science professor at the University of Mosul, told Shafaq News the decision followed the electoral law, which grants quota seats to the party with the highest overall vote after finalizing male winners, adding that the ruling “closes the door on political bargaining and affirms legal merit over party pressure.”

Iraqi law mandates that women hold at least 25% of the 329 parliamentary seats, triggering the quota system when female candidates fail to win enough seats outright.

Read more: Iraqi women join the race, yet real power remains out of reach

IHEC issued the ruling alongside the release of final results from Iraq’s sixth parliamentary election since 2003, with nationwide turnout surpassing 56%.

In Nineveh—bordering Syria and allocated 34 seats, including eight for women and three for minorities—turnout reached 65.22%, with the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), led by Masoud Barzani, topping the results with 189,535 votes (5 seats), followed by Mohammed al-Halbousi’s Taqaddum with 157,958 votes (4 seats), and Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani’s Al-Ima’ar Wal Tanmiya (Reconstruction and Development) with 146,859 votes (4 seats).