Iraqi parliamentary election, 2014
Electoral system
The electoral system is based on the open list system of proportional representation using the governorates as the constituencies. The counting system has been changed slightly from the Largest remainder method method to the modified Sainte-Laguë method due to a ruling by the Supreme Court that the previous method discriminated against smaller parties. Seven "compensatory" seats that were awarded at the national level to those parties whose national share of the vote wasn't reflected in the seats won at the governorate level have been allocated to individual governorates. Eight seats remain reserved for minority groups at the national level.
Campaign
The campaign is expected to focus on competition within the three main sectarian communities: Shi'ite Arabs, Sunni Arabs and Kurds. Shi'ite Arabs will be split between the Prime Minister's State of Law, Sadrist Movement and Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq. The former secular/sunni Iraqiya coalition will be split between the parliamentary speaker's Mutahidoun party, Allawi's Iraqi National Accord and al-Mutlak's Iraqi National Dialogue Front.
Parties
Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission approved 276 political entities to run in the elections. Political entities appear on the ballot as part of a "coalition" (kutla) and under the constitution of Iraq the head of the largest coalition has the first call to become Prime Minister. However, in a precedent set following the 2010 election, a revised coalition can be formed following the election. This reduces the incentive for parties to form coalitions prior to the election.
The largest parties on the approved list include the Prime Minister's State of Law Coalition, the Sadrist Movement (Ahrar), the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Iraqi National Accord. Significant new parties include the former militant group Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq and the White Iraqiya Bloc, which split from the Iraqi National Accord.
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