Parliamentary Election Is Good News For Printing Industry

Iraq’s elections campaign got under way on March 31 and will continue during the Month of April ahead of a general election due to be held on April 30. As candidates rush to promote themselves through all the available media, printing houses are flooded with new orders for posters, brochures, banners and other promotional jobs for candidates. The elections will decide the 328 members of the Council of Representatives who will in turn elect the Iraqi President and Prime Minister.  

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  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.