Iraq Supreme Court Rejects Challenge, Ratifies October Vote

Iraq’s Supreme Court has rejected the last challenges to the October election, and certified the final results. This ends months of political in-fighting, and will allow competitive parties

October’s vote saw Moqtada al-Sadr’s party winning the largest plurality. Most parties did roughly as expected. The Fatah Party, which is dominated by Shi’ite militias, did very poorly.

Fatah claimed there was fraud, and continued to test the results right up until today, when the court spurned their challenge. There doesn’t seem to be a path for a new challenge either.

Iran is allied with the militias, and recently admonished them to stop challenging and move forward. Iran prioritizes stability in Iraq, and there’s little to be done after a decisive election defeat.

Sadr’s bloc doesn’t have an obvious path to majority, nor does anyone else. That’s not to say a government is impossible, but it will likely take some negotiating.

Sadr campaigned on reform and increased autonomy, which makes them a difficult partner for parties so closely aligned with the status quo.