Shafaq News – Baghdad

Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) reported on Monday that 786 candidates have been barred from the upcoming elections, citing a range of legal and procedural violations.

According to IHEC data, the number of candidates currently in the race stands at 7,709. The commission also confirmed that 46 candidates who appealed their exclusion were reinstated following rulings by the judicial body.

The disqualifications, IHEC said, were based on several grounds. A total of 370 candidates were excluded under the Accountability and Justice Law, which addresses ties to the former regime. Another 162 were removed due to criminal records, while 44 were disqualified for incomplete academic documents.

Additional exclusions included 170 individuals who submitted withdrawal requests from their candidate lists, 15 who were dismissed by the Higher Education Council, and four cases involving document forgery. Twenty-one candidates were barred for other unspecified reasons.

The commission stressed that the process of reviewing candidacies is ongoing and that final candidate lists will be issued after all appeals and verifications are complete.