Mustafa Al Kadhimi is the former Prime Minister of Iraq, having risen to power at a moment of great economic and societal uncertainty for the country. Under Prime Minister Al Kadhimi’s leadership, sweeping legislative reforms were implemented, ensuring the release of peaceful protestors, enhancing government accountability, restructuring security leadership and implementing electoral reforms.
Citing the Iraqi people as his leader, Prime Minister Moustafa Al Kazemi vowed to ‘remove the whales of corruption’. He also committed to ensuring protection and management of elections to achieve the will of voters. Prime Minister Al Kadhimi pledged to follow up the supervision of everything related to electoral security, providing the maximum possible free will for voters.
Concerned about creating a political and security environment conducive to safe, transparent and fair elections, Mustafa Al Kadhimi said he would respond to the national vision in a way that preserved the dignity of Iraqi citizens. Prime Minster Al Kadhimi pledged that his government would not tolerate any violation of rules in the electoral process, stressing that ‘Iraq is not the estate of anyone’ and highlighting that its leadership must uphold its commitment to the country and its people above any ‘partisan, sectarian, ethnic or national approach’.
In his first year in office, Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi implemented a swathe of economic reforms that culminated in the addition of over $12 billion to the state reserve. In his groundbreaking ‘White Paper’, Dr Al Kadhimi outlined a range of strategies to be implemented over the following five years with the goal of establishing Iraq as one of the most prosperous and productive countries not just in the region but globally.
Describing his reforms as an effective weapon against corruption, occupation, dependence, dissolution, injustice and poverty, Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi pledged to his people to remove corruption, returning the prestige of what was lost and restoring the livelihoods and security of every citizen.
Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi underscored the importance of legislative elections in changing the fate of the Iraqi state, pledging his government’s commitment to fulfilling its obligations to support the Electoral Commission. In the run up to the October 2021 elections, Prime Minister Al Kadhimi renewed his call for citizens to participate in the ballot, confirming in a press statement that, with three weeks to go, his government had prepared all the requirements of the voting process, implementing important measures to support the Commission at an extraordinary meeting of the Council of Ministers. These measures included launching a national electoral paper, a document he described as a ‘charter of honour’ obliging all political candidates and blocs not to commit any act that could compromise the integrity of the electoral process.
Mustafa Al Kadhimi called on all Iraqis to go to the polls in the hope of looking forward to a better tomorrow by choosing the right candidate and starting a life away from corruption, ensuring the luxury of the people. In a tweet, Barham Saleh, the President of the Republic, announced that he had signed the Code of Electoral Conduct in the presence of the Prime Minister along with the leaders and representatives of political forces, pledging his government’s commitment to holding fair elections and ensuring real representation of the will of Iraqis along with a peaceful transfer of power.
The Iraqi Code of Electoral Conduct included a clause obliging the Electoral Commission to announce the results of preliminary elections within 24 hours, as well as guaranteeing the rights of women and minorities. Observers of Iraqi political affairs have long underscored the importance of providing a peaceful and civil atmosphere to ensure the rights of the Iraqi people are recognised and upheld.
