2021, the year of elections and the crisis of results.. and tenderness may lead the government in 20

[size=52]2021, the year of elections and the crisis of results.. and tenderness may lead the government in 2022[/size]

[size=45]Baghdad / Tamim Al-Hassan[/size]
[size=45]The year 2021 rolled its last days into a political crisis that may extend in the search for the shape and name of the next prime minister.[/size]
[size=45]The events of the year, which we bid farewell to tomorrow, bore a major title: the early legislative elections, the crisis of results, the rise of the Tishreen currents, and the loss of the mobilization forces.[/size]
[size=45]The year that is about to end, for the first time since the overthrow of the previous regime, witnessed the targeting of the prime minister's house.[/size]
[size=45]This came after the armed factions in 2021 escalated their attacks against the Green Zone in Baghdad and the Kurdistan region.[/size]
[size=45]And in the middle of 2021, the government almost clashed with the PMF factions against the backdrop of the arrest of a prominent leader in the commission, due to accusations of killing activists.[/size]
[size=45]The activity of ISIS has also increased in an unprecedented way, the return of suicide bombers and explosions to Baghdad, the occupation of a village in the north of the capital, and the displacement of the population.[/size]
[size=45]Early election ads[/size]
[size=45]Since the first days of the year that is nearing its end, the early campaigns for the elections began, as the polling date was last June, before it was later postponed to October.[/size]
[size=45]Officials in the governorates and parties engaged in campaigns to "pave the streets", install "electric transformers", sponsor popular football, and organize "free circumcision" parties for children.[/size]
[size=45]And Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi had said in May 2020, that the date for holding early legislative elections is June 6, 2021.[/size]
[size=45]Then the level of propaganda decreased after that when the government decided to postpone the elections until the fall, due to the funding of the Electoral Commission and the incompleteness of the logistical aspects.[/size]
[size=45]Cancellation of foreign elections[/size]
[size=45]Meanwhile, the commission decided to cancel the elections abroad for the first time since 2005 (the first legislative elections after 2003).[/size]
[size=45]And objected to some political forces that depended on Iraqi voters in neighboring countries, around which suspicions of fraud revolve.[/size]
[size=45]At that time, the number of Iraqis abroad was estimated at about 6 million people, distributed over 21 countries, 2 million of whom had the right to vote.[/size]
[size=45]The Electoral Commission said at the time, that it was forced to take this measure to reduce expenses and the spread of the “Corona” epidemic.[/size]
[size=45]The boycott of al-Sadr and the merger of al-Hakim with al-Abadi[/size]
[size=45]After that, the parties and alliances began preparing again for the elections, which were set on October 10.[/size]
[size=45]Early on, Muqtada al-Sadr, the leader of the Sadrist movement, announced that he would run in the elections alone this time, before announcing his boycott of the elections, and then reverting again from his decision.[/size]
[size=45]Last spring, the heads of the Wisdom Movement and the Victory Coalition, Ammar al-Hakim and Haider al-Abadi, announced the merger within the State Forces Movement, which would then achieve modest results in the elections.[/size]
[size=45]The former parliament speaker, Muhammad al-Halbousi, also established an alliance of progress, and Khamis al-Khanjar competed with him in his announcement of the “Azm” alliance.[/size]
[size=45]He also announced the extension movement led by Alaa Al-Rikabi, as one of the most prominent forces of the October demonstrations that participated in the elections.[/size]
[size=45]But after an escalation against the activists and the killing of Ihab al-Wazni in Karbala, 10 currents, most notably the Communist Party and other forces from Tishreen, decided to boycott the elections.[/size]
[size=45]However, before the elections and during the campaign to promote the elections, some boycott forces reversed their decision.[/size]
[size=45]The National Coalition led by Iyad Allawi (Al-Muqata') participated in the elections, and the Republican Gathering headed by Saad Assem Al-Janabi, who had previously announced his boycott.[/size]
[size=45]The most prominent boycott was Muqtada al-Sadr, who returned one month after his decision to compete, to win the most seats.[/size]
[size=45]The weakest participation in the elections[/size]
[size=45]About 130 parties and alliances, and about 800 individual candidates, participated in the elections, in which no security incidents were recorded.[/size]
[size=45]However, the voter participation rate was considered the lowest since 2005, when about 9 million voters out of more than 22 million voted, and the rate was about 43%, according to IHEC figures.[/size]
[size=45]The Al-Fateh Alliance led by Hadi Al-Amiri - the political umbrella of the Hashd - suffered a great loss, as it lost more than half of its seats in 2018.[/size]
[size=45]The extension movement emanating from Tishreen won a surprise with 9 seats, and individual candidates won 43 seats.[/size]
[size=45]crisis results[/size]
[size=45]After the results were announced, supporters of the Al-Fateh coalition, which lost in the elections, began to demonstrate and sit in front of the gates of the Green Zone for about two months, demanding the annulment of the results.[/size]
[size=45]And the situation continued until only 4 days before the end of 2021, when the Federal Court decided the validity of the elections and ratified the results.[/size]
[size=45]Before that, the Shiite forces opposed to the elections, with the exception of al-Sadr, had struggled with the latter to form the largest bloc and the form of the government: a consensus or a political majority, according to the current's measurements.[/size]
[size=45]In the last two days of 2021, there were signs of a resolution of the crisis, with an imminent agreement between al-Sadr and the opposition Shiite parties in al-Hanana in the city of Najaf, but without the leader of the State of Law coalition, Nuri al-Maliki.[/size]
[size=45]The arrest of a reformer and the bombing of Al-Kazemi’s house[/size]
[size=45]Several months before that, the Shiite forces supporting the crowd accused Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi of trying to create crises with the former over the arrest of a leader in the commission.[/size]
[size=45]The government had arrested Qassem Musleh, the leader of the Al-Toufof Brigade - one of the crowd's formations - after the killing of the activist Ihab Al-Wazani in Karbala.[/size]
[size=45]Parties in the crowd, such as the Hezbollah Brigades and Imam Ali, threatened to storm the Green Zone, before Musleh was released after two weeks of detention.[/size]
[size=45]And the relationship of these forces with the Prime Minister remained tense, until mid-November, when drones targeted Al-Kazemi’s house, in the first incident of its kind after 2003.[/size]
[size=45]This attack was the penultimate at the end of 2021, when about a month later, two missiles fell on the Green Zone.[/size]
[size=45]These attacks escalated following the factions' threats to target US interests if they did not leave Iraq at the end of this year.[/size]
[size=45]Although the government and Washington announced that advisers would remain, the armed factions carried out 22 attacks in 2021, in which more than 80 missiles were used and marched in Baghdad and Erbil.[/size]
[size=45]"ISIS" activity to the fore[/size]
[size=45]In 2021, ISIS attacks escalated, as the organization killed and wounded more than 150 Iraqis, most of whom were from the security forces, about 1% of them were officers, and 3% were from the “Peshmerga,” while the year witnessed the return of suicide bombers.[/size]
[size=45]These attacks caused the burning of about 90 houses, carried out by the organization or due to a “counter-revenge” by some unknown armed groups in the mixed areas in response to ISIS attacks, and the kidnapping of more than 10 civilians.[/size]
[size=45]The organization also occupied a village for the first time in 5 years, and in return pushed for the revival of a military agreement between Baghdad and Erbil in the disputed areas, and the year witnessed the return of the displacement of residents again.[/size]
[size=45]On the other hand, the organization’s methods developed, as it relied on “ambush tactics” to inflict the largest number of victims, and the use of advanced sniper weapons.[/size]
[size=45]Aviation suicide bombers[/size]
[size=45]The most prominent of these attacks occurred when two people blew themselves up with explosive belts in the center of the capital in the Tayaran Square area, killing 32 civilians, and wounding more than 110 others.[/size]
[size=45]Six months after the incident, Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi announced last July, two days before his departure to Washington on an official visit, the arrest of all members of the "terrorist" network that "planned and executed" the suicide attack.[/size]
[size=45]Outside the capital, the most prominent attacks at the beginning of the year were what happened in the Al-Aith peninsula between Diyala and Salah al-Din, where an attack killed and wounded 20 people, including members of the Popular Mobilization Forces.[/size]
[size=45]Then the organization returned last March, after a lull that lasted about a month, to launch an attack on the Tal al-Dhahab area that lasted for about an hour south of Samarra, where this incident opened the door for several attacks after that.[/size]
[size=45]In the same month, ISIS launched an attack in Tarmiyah, north of the capital, and then kidnapped 4 farmers in a poultry field in the Al Hadd Al Akhdar area in the Al Abra district, northeast of Diyala.[/size]
[size=45]Days after the “Green Border” incident, the organization kidnapped two farmers in the Heliwa area of ​​Tuz Khurmatu district, east of Salah al-Din.[/size]
[size=45]On the borders of Kurdistan[/size]
[size=45]In the same month, the first attacks began in the areas that are constitutionally called "disputed", targeting the "Peshmerga" forces, which will then expand.[/size]
[size=45]Last March, these forces were subjected to the first attack of its kind in 2021, which was carried out with missiles from the Altun Kobri area in the south of the region.[/size]
[size=45]A month after that incident, the organization returned to attacking the same areas common to the borders of the Kurdistan region and the local government, but this time from the direction of Diyala.[/size]
[size=45]In the following month, ISIS killed and wounded in a series of new attacks, 30 civilians and soldiers, including 7 officers, in Kirkuk, Diyala, Tarmiyah and Anbar, which were carried out in one week.[/size]
[size=45]The repeated attacks in the areas separating the borders of the federal government and the region prompted to revive the agreement to form joint security centers between the two parties, which will be delayed until December until they are activated and military operations begin.[/size]
[size=45]In the same month, ISIS repeated its attacks in Tarmiyah 5 times, and at that time calls began by some forces close to the factions to “clone” the experience of Jurf al-Sakhar in keeping the residents away from the city.[/size]
[size=45]In the same month, the organization committed a massacre against fishermen in Haditha Lake, west of Anbar, killing and wounding 11 of them during a fishing trip in the lake.[/size]
[size=45]In the same month, the organization had adopted an attack in Kadhimiya in Baghdad with an explosive device that killed and wounded 24 civilians, before the government announced after that the arrest of the perpetrators, one of whom was affiliated with a security apparatus.[/size]
[size=45]In the summer, ISIS attacked the funeral of a judge in Yathrib, south of Samarra, killing and wounding 31 people.[/size]
[size=45]Then the organization returned in the seventh month, killing an educational supervisor and his brother and wounding 6 of his relatives in an armed attack in al-Dhuluiya, also south of Samarra.[/size]
[size=45]After that, a soldier, his father and his brother were executed in an attack launched by ISIS on a house in the Helwan area, northeast of Diyala.[/size]
[size=45]Depopulation of Tarmiyah[/size]
[size=45]In the same month, ISIS launched a violent attack in Tarmiyah, north of Baghdad, which caused the killing and wounding of 11 members of the Popular Mobilization Forces in clashes that lasted 10 hours, after which it opened for a new time to talk about the “depopulation” of the judiciary, similar to what happened in Jurf al-Sakhr.[/size]
[size=45]This happened two months after the killing of the Wali of Tarmiyah, Omar Jawad al-Mashhadani, who was considered responsible for transporting the suicide bombers to the al-Wahilat market.[/size]
[size=45]The bombing of the market, which is located in Sadr City, east of Baghdad, was the third incident that took place in the capital in the fourth year of the defeat of ISIS, as it killed 36 and injured more than 60.[/size]
[size=45]In September, the signs of a crisis began in Diyala, as attacks were repeated in the north and northeastern regions of the province, and the tribes began declaring that they were arming as a substitute for the state to protect their areas.[/size]
[size=45]New waves of marriage[/size]
[size=45]With the end of the elections, 300 families in the village of Nahr al-Imam in the north of Baqubah, the center of Diyala governorate, were forced to leave their homes under the protection of the security forces. They have not returned to their areas yet.[/size]
[size=45]This came after unidentified gunmen attacked the nearby and staged a party of executions of children and the elderly, whose number reached 30 civilians, including dead and wounded, in addition to the burning of 60 houses.[/size]
[size=45]This happened hours after ISIS attacked the adjacent village of al-Rashad, killing and wounding 10 at the time, after the people were preparing to exchange two kidnappers, but what happened was an ambush to inflict a number of other victims.[/size]
[size=45]And last month, the organization had rearranged its ranks in Qara Jogh mountain near Makhmour in southern Erbil, where the militants, estimated at about 100, returned to the area after the end of the military operations.[/size]
[size=45]The worst thing that happened was the organization’s occupation of the village of “Lahiban” between Kirkuk and Makhmour, where all the residents were abandoned and 16 out of 70 houses were burned.[/size]
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