'A lot of Iraqis won't vote or will vote with few expectations'

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00:00In Iraq, people are voting today for a new parliament. The country is trying to move past

00:04decades of war and repression under the dictator Saddam Hussein, and since the U.S.-led invasion

00:10that toppled him. Even now, though, Iraq is still suffering from poor infrastructure,

00:15failing public services, and endemic corruption. We're going to talk more about this now with

00:20author and political scientist specializing in the Middle East, Miriam Benrod. Thanks so much,

00:24Miriam, for taking the time to join us now live from Marseille. Both the U.S. and Iran closely

00:29watching this election. Why is it such a pivotal one? I would not say that this is a pivotal

00:37election. It's the sixth election. And as you said, a lot of Iraqis either won't vote or will vote with

00:45very few expectations because the various legislative elections since 2005 were quite a

00:55deception. But this can be an important moment, I would say, because of the wider regional

01:02environment. And of course, how much this election will question or not the ties of Iraq with Iran,

01:12in particular, the role that the U.S. is seeking to regain in the country with, as you know, the

01:19nomination of a new special envoy. So I would say that this is an interesting election from that point

01:25of view. Internally, as I said, there is a certain apathy on the side of the Iraqis. They don't expect

01:32much, unfortunately.

01:34So do you think that this vote is just going to leave the same parties in power or might we see some

01:39change?

01:42I think there is a growing loss of interest in politics. This is the problem. So what used to be

01:53anger turning into protests no longer really exists. There is a lot of indignation and anger,

02:00but it's no longer, this dissatisfaction is no longer being transformed into movements of protest

02:07against the established elites and, more widely, I would say, the system. And we're not either seeing

02:16the emergence of a new political generation who could have another project. So this is why a lot

02:23of young Iraqis are not really focused on these elections, which they consider, as I said, to be

02:29a perpetuation of the existing structures.

02:32I think the whole question today is to see whether the role that the U.S. wants to regain in the country

02:42could change, could change the situation, especially regarding the role played by Xi militias

02:49closely linked to Tehran. I think one other challenge is to what extent the nationalist factions,

02:57coalitions, how they will perform in this election, this will say a lot, I think, about the general

03:05sentiment and the quest for sovereignty, for renewed sovereignty, which I think is a key demand. But

03:12overall, the deception has been too long, so I'm not expecting much from this new election.

03:20And is that deception, do you think, why people are predicting that the turnout for this election

03:24is going to be quite low?

03:25Yeah, I think we can expect a very low turnout because of the fact, as I said, that we've seen

03:35some progress. I'm not saying that Iraq is in the same situation as it used to be 10 years ago,

03:4020 years ago. We've seen some progress. There has been a beginning of reconstruction. We've seen the

03:47rehabilitation of cities destroyed, especially during the last war against Daesh. We've seen entire

03:53territories recovering. But it's not enough. As you said, the governance is dysfunctional. There is a very

04:02high level of unemployment, especially among the youth. The corruption is endemic. The same thing goes

04:10for clientelism. And as I said, this whole system that seems to function completely outside of society.

04:18And the last election in 2021 was a major disappointment, which I think also explains why

04:26many Iraqis would even go to the polling stations, because they are not going to think that it's

04:34likely to bring any significant change.

04:38And I was mentioning things are difficult for many Iraqis. There's poor infrastructure,

04:42failing public services, corruption. How would you describe the situation for Iraqis day to day at

04:48the moment?

04:52So, as I said, there's I think there's a lot of progress on the security side. We're no longer,

04:58if you remember, going through this nightmare when we used to have terrorist attacks on a daily basis

05:04in this country. The Islamic State was reduced to a minimum. We've talked of a resurgence,

05:11but I don't think we're seeing any of this. I'm not going to tell you that the situation is fully

05:17stabilized, but this is now a country where you can go as a tourist, as a traveler, where you can,

05:23that you can discover, where you can travel, that you can cross without fearing for your life. So,

05:28this is the major, I would say, the major source of progress.

05:32But a lot of infrastructure is not repaired, indeed. And as you know, the infrastructure in Iraq

05:41has been destroyed, damaged for decades. And we are not seeing the reforms, the socioeconomic

05:47reforms that this society, which is extremely young, is expecting. So, I don't know what the future holds,

05:55but the future could hold when you protest and movements against the government. I'm not seeing

06:03this at the moment, but it could be, it could be the result, the outcome.

06:10Miriam, thank you. Miriam Benrod there, political scientist specializing in the Middle East.

06:14Thanks so much.

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