Unheard and uncertain – Iraqi Christians need your support in the upcoming elections

Elections will be taking place on Tuesday 11 November in Iraq, where Christians find themselves firmly in the minority. Technical loopholes and corrupt practices are filling believers with fearful uncertainty, and they need your prayers.

On Tuesday (11 November), elections will be taking place in Iraq. However, a day generally symbolic of hope and empowerment is for many Iraqi believers one of disillusionment and despair.

In the parliamentary set-up of Iraq, Christians are permitted five seats under the country’s quota system. This legislation should mean that their minority voice has a weigh-in on the political landscape. However, these seats are technically open to all voters, not just Christians, enabling the majority to contest the seats and win them.

Owing to this loophole, a party called The Babylon Movement – a Chaldean Catholic political group which claims to represent Iraq’s shrinking Christian community – has taken power of these five seats. Iraqi Christians widely reject the group, which has within its structure an armed wing backed by Iranian-supported Shia militia, according to the Washington Institute for the Near East Policy (WINEP).

Despite their lack of support from Christians, the party holds the power – every candidate for the allocated seats is from within its ranks, whilst hundreds of other acceptable candidates have been disqualified. The political make-up has been the same for many years and is increasingly disheartening for believers.

“As Christians, we have a big problem,” Sami*, a Christian legal expert in the area, explains. “The quota is snatched from us. The outcome is already settled. So non-Christians decide for Christians when it comes to their representatives. It’s misery for us.”

Targeted and silenced

One disqualified Christian candidate is Isam Behnam, who has been denied proper explanation for his dismissal. “We were disqualified through arbitrary measures that lacked transparency and fairness. The disqualification is illegal, and it’s a constitutional violation,” he explains.

Whilst some candidates are disqualified, others are violently attacked or their reputations tarnished. Government support to only some candidates means that anyone outside of such shielding is at risk of theft of their votes, harassment – or even death.

One candidate amongst them was Safa al-Mashhadani, who was assassinated in October.

A climate of uncertainty

Such events induce a climate of uncertainty and fear for Christians in Iraq. The façade of democracy hides procedural injustices to the watching world, yet believers see them with pessimistic clarity.

“The outcome of the current elections is already known,” Fadi*, a Christian man, expresses. “The elections are only symbolic for the international community to show that it’s a democratic process. After every election, it is clear to us that the candidates and winners are agreed upon earlier.

“If the elections are corrupted and get the international community’s approval, this will lead to another four years of theft, commissions and corruption.”

Fadi is not alone in his disillusionment. Many Christians are giving up on going to the polling stations in the face of their repeated disempowerment. After years of the same struggle, their hope for change is weakening.

A voice for justice

Amidst the discouragement, many are bravely speaking out. In March 2024, Christian parties decided to boycott the elections in the Kurdistan Region Parliament. This year, many are once again choosing to boycott and resist the waves of injustice.

But the voice of Iraqi believers desperately needs the prayers of their worldwide family. Iraq stands at number 17 on the World Watch List, and pressure on Christians is high with violence a present reality for many. Further, widespread corruption continues to undermine their stability. Numbers of Christians have been diminishing over the past two decades from around 1.5 million to under 200,000 due to such persecution.

Under-represented and disillusioned – Christians in Iraq need your support to make their voices heard. Please continue to pray for these brothers and sisters. Thank you!