Iraqi Elections
Next election · parliamentary, expected 2029 · Capital · Baghdad in the metro rankings →
Eighty years of Iraqi voting, recorded honestly: the managed chambers of the Hashemite monarchy, Saddam's single-list rituals and 99.99% referendums, the purple-finger election of 2005 held under fire — and an unbroken run of competitive parliamentary elections since, through civil war, ISIS and the Tishreen uprising.
Parliamentary elections
18
1946–2025: monarchy, Ba'athist rituals, and the federal republic
Presidential votes
6
two Saddam referendums, four parliamentary elections of a ceremonial president
Competitive elections since 2005
7
an unbroken run from the purple fingers of January 2005 to November 2025
Saddam's 2002 score
100%
eleven million official votes, none against — recorded as an artefact of terror
Presidential votes
Two kinds of contest that could not be less alike: Saddam's yes-or-no referendums, and the parliament's repeatedly deadlocked elections of a ceremonial president — by convention a Kurd — since 2014.
Elected by parliament · 2014–present
Under the post-2003 constitution the Council of Representatives elects the president, by convention a Kurd, with a two-thirds majority required on the first ballot. The office is largely ceremonial, but the vote is real — and repeatedly deadlocked, taking a year in 2022 and five months in 2026.
Saddam's referendums · 1995–2002
Twice, Saddam Hussein put himself to a 'vote': a yes-or-no referendum with no other candidate, no secrecy worth the name and ration cards hanging over every household. The official results — 99.96 per cent, then a perfect 100 — are recorded here as artefacts of state terror, not elections.
Parliamentary elections
Every national parliamentary vote, newest first — the Council of Representatives era with real winners and losers, the Ba'athist National Assembly rituals labelled for what they were, and the managed chambers of the monarchy.
The federal republic · 2005–present
The purple-finger election of January 2005 was the first real vote in half a century, held under insurgent fire. Since then Iraq has kept an unbroken run of competitive parliamentary elections — through civil war, the ISIS catastrophe and the Tishreen uprising — even as turnout sagged and governments took months to form.
Ba'athist rituals · 1980–2000
Saddam Hussein revived the National Assembly in 1980 as decoration. Every candidate was vetted by the regime, the Ba'ath-led National Progressive Front could not lose, and the chamber had no power worth contesting. These votes are recorded here as rituals of the dictatorship, not elections.
The Hashemite monarchy · 1946–1958
Parliamentary elections under the British-installed monarchy were managed affairs: a narrow franchise, two-stage voting for most of the era, palace-picked prime ministers and chambers stuffed with notables. The September 1954 election returned almost every deputy unopposed; the 1958 chamber never finished its term — the July revolution shot the king and buried the parliament with him.
The long arc in charts
Hover any point for the exact figure.
Turnout in the federal era, 2005–2025
The slide and the rebound: from the defiant queues of 2005 down to 43% after the Tishreen uprising shattered faith in the party system, then back above 56% in 2025.
Why the Ba'athist numbers are not data
The National Assembly elections of 1980–2000 and the referendums of 1995 and 2002 reported whatever the regime required — 99.99%, then a perfect 100. They appear in the chronology with their honest labels, and in no chart: announced unanimity measures fear, not opinion.
The numbers to know
The purple-finger election
2005
the first real vote in half a century, held under insurgent fire in January 2005
Saddam's announced share
100%
the 2002 referendum — every one of 11.4 million official votes recorded as a yes
Closest election
2 seats
Allawi's Iraqiyya 91, Maliki's State of Law 89 in 2010 — and nine months to form a government
Lowest turnout
43.3%
the 2021 early election after the Tishreen uprising — the post-2003 low
Seats uncontested in 1954
110
the September 1954 election: only 25 of 135 seats were actually contested
Consecutive competitive elections
7
January 2005 through November 2025 — an unbroken run no neighbour save Israel can match
How Iraqi elections work
The Council of Representatives
329 seats elected by proportional representation by governorate, with quota seats for women (a quarter of the chamber) and for Christian, Yazidi, Shabak, Mandaean and Feyli Kurd minorities. The electoral law has changed before nearly every election.
Forming a government
No party has ever approached a majority, so governments emerge from months of negotiation between Shia, Sunni and Kurdish blocs. The record: nine months after 2010, a year after 2021, and five months to elect a president after 2025.
The ethno-sectarian convention
By convention since 2005 the presidency goes to a Kurd, the premiership to a Shia Arab and the speakership to a Sunni Arab. The president is elected by parliament with a two-thirds quorum — the source of repeated deadlocks.
What the labels mean
Monarchy-era elections were managed by the palace; Ba'athist votes were rituals under state terror; everything since January 2005 has been genuinely competitive, held under violence but not falsified — each entry says which it is.