Early results show record low turnout in Iraq’s 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 in the post-Saddam Hussein era and 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.