By Hussein Ahmed AL-Sarhan Head of political Studies/Center for Strategic Studies In October1, 2019 , the protests launched in most of south and middle cities of Iraq. A protestations continued six days. The invitations of these protestations appeared in the last days of September by some activists and groups in social media especially (facebook and twitter). During five days, (104) from protests and security forces were killed and (6107) injured according to official statistics which announced by ministry of interior but the reality number of victims is bigger than the declarer according to some of human rights organizations, activists and media. It’s the fifth times of protestations after US’s withdraw from Iraq and the end of the US’s occupation, the first times was in 2011, 2nd in 2015, 3rd in 2017 and 4th in 2018. So, we can say that (2019 protestations) are the five wave of remonstrations in Iraq. Reasons of the protestations The main reasons were the same reasons of previous protestations but the demands of protests are difference. In the fours waves, the demands focused on provident of electricity, jobs and public services then political reforms. But in October Uprising 2019, the demands started with dissolve of the corrupt government, achieve of the political stability and reform of the economic situation to provident jobs in public and private sectors. Most of the protesters were young people between 15 – 25 years old. They haven’t received good education, good health services and they live in a deteriorating economic situation due to the corruptions in all state institutions. The protesters (young) have a knowledge of political and economic failure due to the behavior of political parties that do not have any vision or strategic to build the state after 2003 and they making a comparison between their country and other countries. As well as they realized that political and economic failure threatens their future and makes it unknown. The corruption, high unemployment rates, and other bad social and economic indicators are results of the political failure. So, we can say that most of Iraqi people believe that the political parties lead Iraqi state to damage because its seeking to achieve its financial abilities by (economic committees). All of these reasons led to unconfidence gap between the people and political regime. The gap expand after parliamentary election in May12, 2018 because of fraud in it in many areas of Iraq. Also, the major political parties have agree to the absence of the Constitution 2005 and not to appoint the largest parliamentary bloc for appoint its candidate to form a government (article/76). Therefore, most of the demands focus on building state institutions, reforming the political system, maintaining state sovereignty from regional influence and protecting Iraqi national interests. Also, they demand with more jobs, solving the housing crisis and of corruption . The protesters and most of Iraqi people believing that the political parties working to enhance their benefits only and don’t have a vision of nation-building. Iraq government and protests Dealing of the current government with protests is similar to the methods of previous governments during the fourth protests waves, so it entered the truce period. The main reason is security forces used a violence against protesters and the Iraqi Federal Police had warned in a statement that snipers who were not part of the security forces were shooting at both the protesters and the police. Also, unknown armed groups attacked the offices of some satellite channels such as NRT Arabic channel, Dijlah TV, AL-RasheedTV and Al-Arabiya-Al-hadath. Despite of government promises with two packages and decisions to respond to protesters’ demands, they believe that the promises and decisions are financial arrangements that need to be include in the federal budget law insufficient to reform the political regime. Therefore, the question is what the protesters want for comprehensive political reform by: – Overthrow Adel Abdul Mahdi’s government. Behind the scenes, there are constant meetings to topple Mr. Mahdi and gain ground for themselves. Overthrow the government is a method to make comprehensive political reform via amend the constitution, adopt a new election law and form an independent election commission. – And demanding an end to widespread government corruption to achieve economic reform to provide jobs and increase the contribution of the private sector in GDP, and provide housing for low-income groups. Religious Marriage and protests Grand Ayatollah Sistani has been one of the most influential religious leaders in Iraqi politics since the US invasion of Iraq. On October11, “The government is responsible for the victims of the last protests. The government must declare the criminals within two weeks for example” representative of Grand Ayatollah Sistani said through Friday speech. He announced Sistani’s solidarity with the protests. This period will end on October25. And protesters became very powerful after supporting their by religious marriage. So many of activists, writers and media called via social media Iraqi people for mass protests on October25. Hussein Ahmed Al-Sarhan (Ph.D in Political Science/ specialized in political economy) is chairman of Political Studies Dept./ Center for Strategic Studies – University of Kerbala. E-mail: hussein.ahmed@uokerbala.edu.iq (@hussein_sarhan1)
