The politics of Iraq take place in a framework of a federal parliamentary representative democratic republic. It is a multi-party system whereby the executive power is exercised by the Prime Minister of the Council of Ministers as the head of government, as well as the President of Iraq, and legislative power is vested in the Council of Representatives and the Federation Council.
The Prime Minister of Iraq is the head of government of Iraq. The Prime Minister was originally an appointed office, subsidiary to the head of state, and the nominal leader of the Iraqi parliament. Under the newly adopted constitution the Prime Minister is the country's active executive authority. Nouri al-Maliki was selected to be Prime Minister on 21 April 2006. On 14 August 2014, al-Maliki agreed to step down as prime minister of Iraq to allow Haider al-Abadi to take his place. On 25 October 2018, Adil Abdul-Mahdi was sworn into office five months after the 2018 elections.
The National Iraqi Alliance, also known as the Watani List, is an Iraqi electoral coalition that contested the Iraqi legislative election, 2010. The Alliance is mainly composed of Shi'a Islamist parties. The alliance was created by the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq to contest in the January 2005 and December 2005 under the name United Iraqi Alliance, when it included all Iraq's major Shi'a parties. The United Iraqi Alliance won both those of elections however later fell apart after several major parties left the alliance due to disputes with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the Supreme Council.
Parliamentary elections were held in Iraq on 30 January 2005 to elect the new National Assembly, alongside governorate elections and a parliamentary election in Iraqi Kurdistan. The 275-member legislature had been created under the Transitional Law during the international occupation. The newly elected body was given a mandate to write a new constitution and exercise legislative functions until the new constitution came into effect. The elections also led to the formation of the Iraqi Transitional Government.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is the official ruling body of the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region.
The Council of Representatives is the unicameral legislature of the Republic of Iraq. It is currently composed of 329 seats and meets in Baghdad inside the Green Zone.
The Rafidain List or Al Rafidain National List is the name of the list that is used by Assyrian Democratic Movement during the Iraqi elections, headed by Yunadam Kanna.
The Iraqi Turkmen Front is a political movement founded in 1995 which seeks to represent the Iraqi Turkmen people. Since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, the ITF has contested control of Kirkuk and other areas of northern Iraq. The ITF claims that Kirkuk belongs to the Turkmen people although they compose only 13–17 percent of the population.
Kurdistan Islamic Group is a movement in Iraqi Kurdistan established in May 2001 by Ali Bapir, a former leader of the Islamic Movement of Kurdistan.
Following the ratification of the Constitution of Iraq on 15 October 2005, a general election was held on 15 December to elect a permanent 275-member Iraqi Council of Representatives.
The Yazidi Movement for Reform and Progress is a Yazidi political party in Iraq. The party represents Yezidi people in the Nineveh plains. It ran in the December 2005 elections and won 0.2% of the popular vote, thus receiving one seat in the Iraqi parliament. The party won a local governorate seat in Ninewa in the January 2005 elections and in the January 2009 elections as well.
The Kurdistan Parliament, also called the Iraqi Kurdistan Parliament (IKP), is the parliament of Iraqi Kurdistan. It is made up of representatives from the various parties, lists or slates that are elected every four years by the inhabitants of the provinces of Iraqi Kurdistan currently governed by the Kurdistan Regional Government. Prior to the Kurdistan Election Law passed in March 2009, the body was referred to as the Kurdistan National Assembly.
Governorate or provincial elections were held in Iraq on 31 January 2009, to replace the local councils in fourteen of the eighteen governorates of Iraq that were elected in the 2005 Iraqi governorate elections. 14,431 candidates, including 3,912 women, contested 440 seats. The candidates came from over 400 parties, 75% of which were newly formed.
A parliamentary election was held in Iraq on 7 March 2010. The election decided the 325 members of the Council of Representatives of Iraq who would elect the Iraqi prime minister and president. The election resulted in a partial victory for the Iraqi National Movement, led by former Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, which won a total of 91 seats, making it the largest alliance in the Council. The State of Law Coalition, led by incumbent Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, was the second largest grouping with 89 seats.
The State of Law Coalition also known as Rule of Law Coalition is an Iraqi political coalition formed for the Iraqi governorate elections, 2009 by the Prime Minister of Iraq at the time, Nouri al-Maliki, of the Islamic Dawa Party.
The Gorran Movement or just Gorran (Change) is an Iraqi Kurdish political party under the leadership of Omar Said Ali, founded in 2009 by Nawshirwan Mustafa. Gorran is the third largest political party by votes after the Kurdistan Democratic Party and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.
The Kurdistan List, also known as the Kurdistan Alliance or the Brotherhood List, is the name of the electoral coalition that ran in the Kurdistan Regional Government parliamentary elections in Iraqi Kurdistan in July 2009. The Kurdistan List represented a coalition of the two main ruling parties in Iraqi Kurdistan, namely the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. It is the successor of the Democratic Patriotic Alliance of Kurdistan.
The Iraqi National Movement (INM), more commonly known as the al-Iraqiya List, was an Iraqi political coalition formed to contest the 2010 parliamentary election by Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi's Renewal List, the Iraqi National Accord led by former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and the Iraqi National Dialogue Front led by Saleh al-Mutlaq. The party included both Shi'a leaders and Sunni leaders and claimed to be secular and non-sectarian.
Parliamentary elections were held in Iraq on 30 April 2014. The elections decided the 328 members of the Council of Representatives who will in turn elect the Iraqi President and Prime Minister.
The Al-Ahrar Bloc is an Iraqi Shia Islamist political coalition formed for the 2014 Iraqi parliamentary election. It is headed by Dia Najem Abdallah al-Asadi.
