Baghdad: An Iraqi woman who passed away two months ago has won the country’s parliamentary election that took place on Sunday, October 10, the local media reported.
The independent candidate Ansam Manuel Iskandar’s name appeared amongst the list of winners in the elections this week. She obtained 2,397 votes and won one of the five seats reserved for the country’s Christian community under the quota system.
However, as per the media reports, Iskandar’s victory sparked astonishment and controversy among Iraqis on social media platforms as they expressed their anger over a dead woman contesting for a seat.
However, her family clarified in a Facebook post that she had announced to contest the elections before. The family said that she died on August 24, 2021 after being infected with the COVID-19.
The family said that some voters did not know of her death and voted for her. “She was elected because she had a rewarding career in her field of work and was a decent humanitarian,” her family said.
Legally speaking, she will now be will be replaced by the candidate who came second in terms of number of votes.
In the Iraqi elections held on October 10 which had a record low voter turnout of 41 per cent, Iraqi Shia cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr led the vote and won most of the parliamentary seats. Parliament Speaker Muhammad al-Halbousi came in second place and the State of Law bloc led by former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki came in third place.
It should be noted that according to the announcement of the cabinet secretariat, 97 women have won in the parliamentary elections all over Iraq.