IHEC outlines rules for filling vacant parliament seats

Shafaq News – Baghdad

Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) on Monday clarified the procedures for filling parliamentary seats that become vacant, specifying different rules depending on the type of seat.

In a document, the Commission indicated that if a vacant seat belongs to an open list, it will automatically go to the losing candidate on the same list who received the highest number of votes in that district.

For seats tied to a single party or political organization, they will be assigned to the candidate from that group who secured the most votes without winning a seat, it added.

According to the document, vacant seats reserved for ethnic or sectarian components will be filled by another candidate from the same group in the same district with the highest number of votes among those who did not win.

If the seat was held by a woman, it noted, the replacement must be another woman from the same open list, although this requirement does not apply to women’s seats reserved under component quotas. For a woman’s seat on a single list, the replacement will be a woman from a party or political organization that received the highest votes without obtaining a seat.

On Sunday, Iraq’s Supreme Federal Court, the country’s highest judicial authority, approved the final results of the 2025 parliamentary elections, formally opening the path for the next legislative term.

Following the court’s ratification, a sequence of constitutional steps is now in motion. Parliament has 15 days to elect a speaker and two deputies. Within 30 days of the first parliamentary session, the president must be chosen, followed by the designation of a prime minister within 15 days of the president’s election. The new government is then required to form within 30 days of the prime minister’s appointment.

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