Parties that make up Iraq's Shi'ite ruling alliance together took at least 101 seats of the 285 available in provincial council elections held this week, Iraqi state media reported, giving them the single-biggest share of seats. Members of the Shi'ite Coordination Framework (CF) that already form the biggest single grouping in Iraq's parliament competed on three main lists but said they would govern together after the Dec. 18 provincial council vote, the first such agreement in a decade.
Parties that make up Iraq's Shi'ite ruling alliance together took the single-largest bloc of votes in Baghdad and most of the country's southern provinces in provincial council elections, a Reuters tally of preliminary results showed. The results from the Independent High Electoral Commission, which included only raw votes and not the final seat allocation, show three electoral lists backed by the ruling Shi'ite Coordination Framework (CF) leading in most of the provinces. They include a list backed by former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki; a list led by Hadi Al-Amiri's Badr Organization that began as a Shi'ite paramilitary, and other Iran-backed factions; and a list including cleric Ammar al-Hakim and former Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi.
The thresholds needed to secure a quorum and victory in the parliamentary vote mean no single faction or alliance has enough seats to impose their choice. Aoun became head of state in 2016 with the support of his powerful Shi'ite ally Hezbollah in a deal that also brought Sunni Muslim politician Saad al-Hariri back as prime minister.
Husseini was succeeded as parliament speaker by Berri, who remains in the post reserved for a Shi'ite Muslim under Lebanon's sectarian political system. Husseini served as an MP until 2008, when he dramatically quit, declaring the constitution had been violated by a political deal agreed by Lebanese politicians in Doha, Qatar to defuse a crisis that had sparked a brief conflict.