Elections in Iraq

Under the Iraqi constitution of 1925, Iraq was a constitutional monarchy, with a bicameral legislature consisting of an elected House of Representatives and an appointed Senate. The lower house was elected every four years by manhood suffrage (women did not vote). The first Parliament met in 1925. Ten general elections were held before the overthrow of the monarchy in 1958.

Between 1958 and 2003 Iraq was ruled by multiple dictatorships, socialist, Arabist then Ba'athist under the regime of Ahmed Hassan Al Bakr, who came to power in 1968, then Saddam Hussein in 1979. Saddam's rule was largely run by Sunni Arabs and Saddam himself was a Sunni Muslim.^[1] On 16 October 2002, after a well-publicized show election, Iraqi officials declared that Saddam had been re-elected to another seven-year term as president by a 100% unanimous vote of all 11,445,638 eligible Iraqis, eclipsing the 99.96% received in 1995.^{[citation needed]} Foreign governments dismissed the vote as lacking credibility.

^ Karsh, Efraim; Rautsi, Inari (2002). Saddam Hussein: A Political Biography. Grove Press. p. 38. ISBN 978-0-8021-3978-8.

[1] Karsh, Efraim; Rautsi, Inari (2002). Saddam Hussein: A Political Biography. Grove Press. p. 38. ISBN 978-0-8021-3978-8.

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