Low voter turnout in Iraq reflects rise in political apathy

Proper politics needs voters to feel that they can instil change and appoint governments capable of serving the national interest

AFP

Members of an Iraqi family show their ink-stained fingers after voting in the 2023 Iraqi provincial council elections, the first such vote in a decade, outside a polling station in Sadr City in eastern Baghdad, on December 18, 2023.

Low voter turnout in Iraq reflects rise in political apathy

Ayad Al-Anbar

last update on 22 Dec 2023

In his book, What is Democracy?, the French thinker Alain Touraine argues that democracy requires more than the freedom to choose rulers among those governed. He may find some sympathetic new readers in Iraq.

For Touraine, proper democracy also requires more than just political pluralism or a choice between different factions of an oligarchy, the military, or the state apparatus.

Such a reduced form of democracy operates in many countries. It is leading to a decline in participation in what is known as the crisis of political representation — a regression that can also happen in nations that are not democracies.

This can be seen in the crisis of democracy in Iraq — or, more precisely, the crisis of Iraqi elections.

In Touraine’s analysis, citizens no longer feel adequately represented. They condemn a political class that seems solely focused on securing its own power and sometimes seeking personal gains. This can lead to a decline in voting.

Earlier this week, Iraq’s first provincial elections in a decade saw a relatively low turnout and largely benefitted traditional parties, according to results announced Tuesday by the country’s election authorities.

Touraine believes that this pattern can destroy democracy. The dangers are especially acute when parties that have accumulated economic or political power become oligarchies accustomed to imposing their choices on citizens, who become reduced to the occasional trip to the polls.

A reduced form of democracy operates in many countries. It is leading to a decline in participation in what is known as the crisis of political representation. This can be seen in the crisis of democracy in Iraq — or, more precisely, the crisis of Iraqi elections.

Votes are held, but nothing changes

Iraqi citizens have become sceptical about democracy, with people regularly pointing out that they have voted in a series of elections, but nothing has changed.

This view contrasts with the importance attached to the polls by political leaders as a source of democratic legitimacy and a means of improving the political system and the poor performance of the government.

AFP — Election Commission employees manually count ballots at a polling station in Sadr City in eastern Baghdad on December 18, 2023, after the end of voting in the 2023 Iraqi provincial council elections.

However, this divergence in how elections are viewed between ordinary people and their leaders raises questions about the viability of the country's system. A lack of participation could create a sense of a lack of legitimacy in government, alongside a sense of dissatisfaction at the standard of rule.

If Iraq is to achieve political stability or to move convincingly toward it, political legitimacy will be vital, as much as the legality of its elections.

There are three main elements to political legitimacy, specified by the political scientist Karl Deutsch, rooted in the constitutional foundations of a country, the proper representation of the people and then a sense that governments can achieve success.

Iraq has a constitution; however, the ability of the ruling powers to claim that they properly represent the people is questionable. And achievements to underline government legitimacy are rare.

The country's political class accepts the inputs needed for legitimacy – elections – but does not heed the outputs: progress in political, economic and security-related achievements. This is the main reason for the imbalance in the relationship between Iraq's government and its people.

Carnivals for oligarchs

It is not enough merely to hold elections. They must help form a proper government. In Iraq, as in other countries transitioning to democracy, there is a danger that elections only serve to ease the path of established forces into power, such as religious, political, tribal, and sectarian groups.

In Baghdad, this shows in the way politics reflects the ambitions of such groups – dividing the institutions of the state among them – rather than responding to the needs of the people. Priorities do not align with the national interest.

AP:AFP:MAJALLA

Instead, politicians repeat the same pledges and promises in each election cycle without delivering results, perpetuating the lack of faith in the system. And there are no signs of any progress to conceal the rest of the failure of the country's political system, in which elections become carnivals for distributing seats among political oligarchies.

In Iraq, politicians repeat the same pledges and promises in each election cycle without delivering results, perpetuating the lack of faith in the system.

Failing the Mahathir Mohamad test

The Malaysian politician Mahathir Mohamad famously wrote in his memoirs that democracy should prevent a bad leader from remaining in power. It seems that this rule does not apply to democracy in Iraq.

Many politicians and parties fail in the country's elections without enough seats to join formal government alliances and end up present in coalition governments anyway. There is a prevailing feeling among politicians that they can be in power even if they lose.

This limits how the electorate can dismiss groups from power, another key feature of elections in mature democracies.

In effect, the leaders elected by Iraq's hybrid and fragile democratic experience are more like electoral dictatorships with time limits. They control the state for a while, often channelling the slogan used by autocrats – "it's me, or chaos" – with elections providing a form of legitimacy to one faction or another until the next vote.

The various leaders differ, clash, and betray each other, seeking to undermine one another. But they will not disagree regarding sharing power and its spoils. They always seem to unite when they sense a challenge from any emerging political forces and strive with all their might to destroy them, even if it means shedding blood.

As long as Iraq's traditional political groups dominate its elections, strengthening their grip on the political system, citizens will be further alienated from democracy.

AFP — An Iraqi man votes in the first provincial council elections in a decade, at a polling station in the central city of Najaf, on December 18, 2023.

Expecting these conditions to produce proper legitimacy is nothing more than political romanticism. While it holds, this concentration of power in the hands of the ruling elite will allow it to plunder the wealth and resources of the state.

As long as Iraq's traditional political groups dominate its elections, strengthening their grip on the political system, citizens will be further alienated from democracy.

Political consciousness

Achieving deeper forms of political legitimacy will require establishing a political culture in the public consciousness. That may help turn around the decline in political participation, through elections or even popular protests. In turn, that could one day mean that state resources could be used to achieve social justice.

With greater participation, proper power sharing and better management of the state may follow. Then Iraq would have a democratic government worthy of the name, rather than a fractured set of alliances among religious and political groups, seeking to rule based on sectarian or nationalist agendas.

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