هەواڵ
294 Working Hours in Four Years; 76 MPs Didn’t Speak at All
بڵاوکراوەتەوە لە : 25 تشرینی یەکەم 2025
قەبارەی دەقەکان
قەبارەی دەقەکان
هەواڵ
بڵاوکراوەتەوە لە : 25 تشرینی یەکەم 2025
قەبارەی دەقەکان
قەبارەی دەقەکان
As Iraq and the Kurdistan Region prepare for the Sixth Parliamentary Election, new data reveal that the Fifth Term has significantly declined compared to the previous term in areas such as (number of sessions, legislation output, minister questioning, MP attendance, and total working hours). More details are included in this report.
MADARIK Institute — an Iraqi non-profit monitoring organization founded in 2004 — has published its final report on the performance of the Fifth Term of the Iraqi Council of Representatives.
This report has attracted major media attention, especially as the country moves toward elections for the Sixth Parliamentary Term on 11/11 of this year.
The report sets multiple evaluation indicators for MPs and ranks the best and worst based on:
Participation in the first and second readings of proposed laws
Participation in general topic discussions in Parliament
Use of procedural points (points of order)
Submitting legislative proposals
Questioning ministers and officials
Before presenting performance details, the report highlights changes to the electoral system triggered by the 2019–2021 protests, which demanded electoral reform.
The electoral law used in 2018 — the Sainte-Laguë system — was abolished. Each governorate had previously been a single electoral district. Under the new system, elections were based on multiple districts, and independent candidates were recognized.
Iraq was divided into 83 districts, with a quota of 25% seats for women and 9 seats for minorities.
The early elections of the Fifth Term took place on 10/10/2021:
3,225 candidates (men & women)
From 108 parties and 21 alliances
Plus 789 independent candidates
On 11/30/2021, the Electoral Commission announced:
22,116,368 eligible voters
9,629,601 votes cast (44% turnout)
Results:
Of 329 seats:
137 seats for coalition parties
148 seats for single parties
44 seats for independents
Due to issues at 33 polling stations, manual recounts changed 5 winners.
Overall:
217 MPs (66%) entered for the first time
68 MPs (19%) returned for a second term
35 MPs (10%) returned for a third term
Only 2 MPs had served five terms
Younger MPs increased compared to the previous term.
Among male candidates, the top 10 vote-getters included six KDP MPs from Erbil, Duhok, and Kirkuk.
Among women, Suroor Abdul-Wahid ranked first nationwide, along with several other Kurdish MPs.
A number of MPs also won with very small vote totals, listed in the report.
The first session of the Fifth Term was held on 1/9/2022, in which:
Mohammed al-Halbousi: Speaker with 200 votes
Hakem al-Zamili (Sadrist): First Deputy Speaker with 182 votes
Shakhawan Abdullah (KDP): Second Deputy Speaker with 180 votes
This session triggered four constitutional challenges at the Federal Supreme Court, putting parliamentary activity on hold for 12 days.
On 6/12/2022, Sadrist MPs — including Deputy Speaker al-Zamili — resigned from Parliament.
Their seats were filled by alternative MPs on 6/23/2022, and Mohsen al-Mandlawi was elected as First Deputy Speaker.
Later, mass protests — including the storming of Parliament — halted its work for 25 days, until 10/13/2022, when Latif Rashid was elected President and he tasked Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani to form a government.
On 10/27/2022, Parliament approved the new cabinet except the Reconstruction and Environment ministries, which were reserved for Kurds.
Compared to previous terms, the Fifth Parliament declined in:
Session count
Laws passed
Ministerial questioning
MP attendance
Total working time
The term cancelled 20 sessions after agendas were already published.
There were also many MP replacements due to resignations and ministerial appointments — particularly after the Sadrist mass resignation of 73 MPs.
According to the evaluation metrics:
Most active speaker:
Adel Hashoush Hatemi — spoke 80 times
Followed by:
Faleh Hasan Khazaali — 66 times
Raed Hamdan Ajab — 55 times
In contrast:
76 MPs never spoke nor submitted a single procedural point — including a number of Kurdish MPs.
Additional statistics:
48 MPs spoke only once in four years
48 MPs spoke twice
25 MPs spoke three times
18 MPs spoke four times
The table also shows the most active Kurdish MPs from the PUK parliamentary faction.
A party-by-party comparison is included showing how many MPs each party had, and how many actually participated in debates.
The oversight performance — including minister questioning and formal inquiries — is summarized in a dedicated table showing individual MP actions.
Average attendance was only 173 MPs per session out of 329 — meaning 156 MPs absent on average.
In total:
Parliament worked 294 hours and 42 minutes in four years
Equivalent to 2.2 hours per session, across 132 sessions
