Dhi Qar postpones vote for council chairperson as unpopular candidate leads the race: source

Shafaq News/ The Dhi Qar Provincial Council in southern Iraq has postponed its session scheduled for Sunday, February 4, until further notice.

A source close to the council told the Shafaq News Agency that the decision was made due to the lack of agreement among Baghdad leaders on the distribution of positions in some provinces.

The session was originally scheduled to be held on Sunday afternoon to elect the council chairperson and two deputies.

"However, the session was postponed due to the ongoing negotiations between Baghdad leaders on the distribution of positions in the new provincial councils," the source said.

The source said that Ahmed Salim, a member of the "Absher Ya Iraq" list and the candidate with the fewest votes among the winning council members, has emerged as a leading candidate for the council leadership.

The Dhi Qar Province is located in southern Iraq and is home to a diverse population of Shia Arabs, Sunni Arabs, and Kurds. The province is one of the poorest in Iraq and has been plagued by violence and instability in recent years.

The Basra Provincial Council, in the far south of Iraq, has also failed to hold its session for the same reason. A council member confirmed that negotiations are still ongoing to distribute positions.

The local elections were held on December 18, 2023, and were the first to be held in Iraq since 2013. The turnout was low, at just 41%, but the elections were seen as a significant step forward for the democratic process in Iraq which experienced a turbulent year after the parliamentary election in 2021.