Sunday’s vote in Iraq clouded by a disillusioned electorate

By SAMYA KULLAB
Associated Press

BASRA, Iraq (AP) — Candidates in Iraq’s parliamentary election on Sunday are trying to persuade the country’s disillusioned younger voters to trust a balloting process long tainted by tampering and fraud. Public apathy is widespread, and some of the pro-reform activists whose street protests in 2019 led to the vote are calling for a boycott at the polls. Iraq’s youth made up a large part of the protests, in which demonstrators were angered about high unemployment, government corruption and lack of basic services like electricity and water. They belong to the country’s largest demographic in the election. Others are pinning their hopes on a redrawn map that expanded the number of electoral districts in a concession to the reformers.