Early results show record low turnout in Iraq election

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA
Associated Press

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s electoral committee says preliminary results show turnout from Sunday’s election was 41 percent. That’s a record low, down from 44 percent in the 2018 election. The result signals widespread dissatisfaction and distrust in the vote. The election was held months ahead of schedule as a concession to a youth-led popular uprising against corruption and mismanagement. But the vote was marred by widespread apathy and a boycott by many of the same young activists who thronged the streets of Baghdad and Iraq’s southern provinces in late 2019, calling for change and new elections.