Iraqi legislative election of December 2005

Following the ratification of the Constitution of Iraq on October 15 2005, a general election was held on 15 December to elect a permanent 275-member Iraqi Council of Representatives.The elections took place under a list system, whereby voters chose from a list of parties and coalitions. 230 seats will be apportioned among Iraq's 18 governorates based on the number of registered voters in each as of the January 2005 elections, including 59 seats for Baghdad Governorate [1]. The seats within each governorate will be allocated to lists through a system of Proportional Representation. An additional 45 "compensatory" seats will be allocated to those parties whose percentage of the national vote total (including out of country votes) exceeds the percentage of the 275 total seats that they have been allocated. Women will be required to occupy 25% of the 275 seats[2]. The change in the voting system will give more weight to Arab Sunni voters, who make up most of the voters in several provinces. It is expected that these provinces will thus return mostly Sunni Arab representatives. The nationwide vote of the previous election meant that the low voter turnout among Sunni Arabs was overwhelmed by the high turnout of the Arab Shi'ites and the mostly Sunni Kurds. In the previous election the largest Sunni Arab block received only 5 seats. Arab Sunni parties withdrew from the elections so late that they could not be removed from the voting lists. The election was boycotted by most Sunni Arabs.
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