Iraq’s upcoming parliamentary elections, slated for November 11, 2025, will allocate nine out of 329 seats to minority communities. Five seats are reserved for Christians, and one seat each for Yazidis, Shabaks, Mandaeans, and Feyli Kurds. This explainer maps the main challengers for each of the nine quota seats.

Context: How the Quota System Works

Iraq allocates quota seats for five Christian MPs and one each for Yazidis, Shabaks, Mandaeans, and Feyli Kurds. These seats are geographically distributed across specific governorates: Christian seats span Baghdad, Nineveh, Erbil, Duhok, and Kirkuk, while the other four minorities are each tied to a single province. However, the voting mechanism has undermined the quota system’s protective intent. Rather than restricting voting to members of the relevant minority, any registered voter anywhere in the country can vote for these seats, regardless of their religious or ethnic affiliation or geographic location.

In the 2021 elections, the pro-Iran Christian Babylon Movement won four of five seats, with the fifth going to a candidate backed by the Kurdistan Communist Party. The other four minority seats, including the Yazidi seat, were captured by PMF-leaning groups.

The Assyrian Democratic Movement, Iraq’s oldest Christian party with a more independent streak, has decided to boycott the elections due to alleged systematic manipulation of minority representation. In earlier elections from 2005 to 2018, Iraqis abroad—where most Christians live—were able to vote, and the Movement won most of its votes from the diaspora. Without overseas voting, its prospects of winning seats are very low. The Movement has accused the current voting method of turning quota seats into tools in the hands of powerful forces backed by armed factions, which seek to expand their influence through electoral fronts nominally affiliated with minorities.

Christian Quota Seats: The Main Battleground

The key battleground is the five Christian quota seats, where competition is fiercest for the Duhok and Erbil seats. The other three seats—in Kirkuk, Nineveh, and Baghdad—are heavily favored to be won by Babylon Movement-backed candidates. Notably, the 2021 elections marked the first Iraqi election in which none of the Christian seats were won by KDP-backed candidates. The KDP had previously mastered the domination of quota seats through earlier experience in Kurdistan Parliamentary elections, where quota seats were often won by pro-KDP candidates.

Erbil Christian Seat

In Erbil, the competition is between the Babylon Movement, the KDP, and the Kurdistan Communist Party, each backing one of three candidates running as independents. In the 2021 parliamentary elections, this seat was won by Farouk Hanna Atto, a candidate backed by the Kurdistan Communist Party.

Interestingly, the Kurdistan Communist Party isn’t fielding candidates in general elections, as its small voting base makes it unlikely to win any seats. Instead, the party now uses the tactic of supporting a quota candidate, since all their members across Iraq can vote for a single candidate, giving them a better chance of winning a proxy seat. The candidate now backed by the Communist Party is Thaera Youssef Aziz, but it remains to be seen whether the party can defend this seat. They won with just 5,084 votes in 2021, while Christian quota seats overall garnered 46,396 votes, suggesting the competition will be fierce. Both the KDP and Babylon Movement will likely employ better strategies to capture this seat.

Babylon’s candidate for Erbil is Hiba Jirgis al-Qass, who ran in Baghdad in 2021 on Babylon’s list and won that seat. The KDP-backed candidate is Kaldo Ramzi Oghanna, Director General of Syriac Culture and Arts in Erbil.

It is unclear whether the KDP will seriously push to win this seat, given that the competition is strong and victory likely requires thousands of votes—something the KDP can ill afford to waste. Under the current electoral system, some seats the KDP is defending may be lost by just a thousand or two votes due to the Sainte-Laguë method (using the 1.7, 3, 5 divisors). Meanwhile, the Babylon Movement has a huge financial apparatus and institutional backing from ruling Shia factions. Since it competes mostly for these five quota seats, it has better resources to plan and win, especially given that the seats can be voted for across all of Iraq.

Duhok Christian Seat

In Duhok, the KDP’s strongest stronghold, the quota seat was won by the Babylon Movement in 2021 with 12,405 votes. The current main competitors are Atheer al-Jalu, who runs on Babylon’s ticket as an independent, and KDP-backed Sami Oshana. There are also Angela Shabo, running as an independent, and Emmanuel Khoshaba, who leads the Assyrian Patriotic Party, but given voting patterns, the competition will likely concentrate between the Babylon and KDP candidates.

However, even then, Babylon appears to have a better chance of winning this seat. In 2021, the KDP-backed candidate won 7,702 votes yet still lost, meaning nearly 8,000 votes were wasted for the KDP. This cost the party a second seat in Duhok, which went to the Kurdistan Islamic Union by a small margin. Evidence suggests the quota votes came from KDP supporters, as most of Oshana’s votes in 2021 came from special voting, which is cast by security forces.

It is unclear whether the KDP will still seriously push to win this seat or abandon the effort altogether. One tactic Babylon might use is to wait for special voting—which takes place before the general elections—to gauge the scale of voting for a candidate, then decide how many votes to allocate for that specific seat from their pool of voters.

Kirkuk Christian Seat

In Kirkuk, the competition for the Christian quota seat is between the Babylon Movement, whose incumbent MP Duraid Jamil defends the seat he won in 2021, and a set of challengers including:

• Shimiran Odisho, backed by the Iraqi Communist Party
• Shamiram Shamoun, backed by current Iraqi PM Mohammed Shia al-Sudani
• Sarkon Lazar, an independent and former Iraqi Minister of Environment
• Imad Youkhana, an independent, former MP, and veteran who previously ran on the Assyrian Democratic Movement’s list in 2018 and earlier elections

Both Lazar and Youkhana are prominent figures, but given Babylon’s systematic machinery, their prospects are dim.

Nineveh Christian Seat

In Nineveh, one of three quota seats is for Christians. This seat is heavily favored to be won by Babylon, as Nineveh is the movement’s stronghold. The candidate, Aswan al-Kildani, is a close family relative of the movement’s leader, Rayan al-Kildani. The Nineveh Plains, where most of Nineveh’s Christians live, has a heavy Babylon militia presence, and al-Kildani has created a sort of fiefdom for himself in the area.

The only other notable candidate for the Nineveh seat is Riyad Qoryo Hanna, a veteran politician close to Assyrian Democratic Movement circles who previously served on the Nineveh provincial council.

Baghdad Christian Seat

In Baghdad, two quota seats are contested, one of which is for Christians. The competition is between Evan Faeq Yakoub Jabro, Babylon Movement’s candidate who currently serves as Minister of Migration and Displacement, and Iman Benyamin Yousif, who is backed by the Chaldean Catholic Church network and circles close to Cardinal Louis Sako. Sako is locked in a political rivalry with the Babylon Movement, having accused al-Kildani of being a tool for Iran and not a genuine representative of Christians. However, the seat is heavily favored to be won by the Babylon candidate.

It is worth noting that a third candidate, former MP Joseph Sliwa, had initially sought to run in Baghdad but was excluded by the electoral commission during the vetting phase. Sliwa, an ex-MP (2014–2018) known for criticizing quota manipulation, was disqualified for reasons not fully explained, leaving only Evan and Iman in the race.

Other Minority Quota Seats

Yazidi Seat (Nineveh)

The single Yazidi quota seat in Nineveh is being contested by seven Yazidi candidates, several of whom have a realistic chance of winning. Key contenders include:

• Hussein Saeed, fielded by the Hababat tribe, the largest Yazidi tribe in Sinjar. The tribe’s main elders are known for their anti-KDP leanings.
• Saeb Khidir Naif, who represented this quota seat from 2018 to 2021. He is known as a Yazidi nationalist close to the PMF.
• Naif Khalaf Sido, the incumbent MP, who is close to PMF circles and backed by the Fuqara tribe, one of the largest Yazidi tribes in Sinjar. He introduced the controversial bill recognizing Yazidis as an ethnic group separate from Kurds.
• Khalaf Qaru, backed by prominent Yazidi PMF commander Nayif Jasu, who is active in southern Sinjar and has close ties to Babylon Movement leader Rayan al-Kildani.
• Kaiser Sheikh Kalo, backed by Murad Sheikh Kalo, a Yazidi PMF commander who leads the 74th Brigade and is closer to PMF chief Falih al-Fayad.

It is worth noting that many Yazidis are also contesting general (non-quota) seats via KDP and PUK lists, as well as through the “Yezidi Cause” coalition.

Shabak Seat (Nineveh)

The second quota seat in Nineveh is for the Shabak minority, a Shia Kurdish-origin community in the Nineveh Plain. Four candidates are running, but incumbent Waad Qaddo is heavily favored to retain the seat. Qaddo is a commander of the Shabak Popular Mobilization Forces unit (the 30th Brigade of the PMU) and is under U.S. sanctions for alleged human rights abuses. He won the 2021 Shabak seat with a landslide (20,827 votes)—an enormous tally achieved by mobilizing Shia voter support in the district.

Qaddo runs as an independent but is known for his close ties to Hadi al-Amiri’s Badr Organization. His militia and political influence in the Hamdaniya and Bartella region give him a formidable ground game. The other three candidates—Hussein Shaker, Rafa’a Hamuuka (who is close to former Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi), and Ali Fathi al-Iskandar—are independents with little chance of winning the seat.

Feyli Kurdish Seat (Wasit)

The Feyli Kurdish seat in Wasit province is contested by eight candidates. The strongest contenders are Haider Hisham Al-Feyli, backed by current Iraqi PM al-Sudani, and Munadhel Jassim al-Allaq, backed by the Wasit Ajmal list, the local affiliate of the Khadamat (Services) alliance tied to Shibl al-Zaidi, commander of the pro-Iran Imam Ali Brigade—one of the most staunchly pro-IRGC factions.

Another candidate is Haider Ali Abu Tara, backed by the KDP. His chance lies in the fact that the seat can be voted for by anyone across Iraq, giving him a slim prospect. Another prominent candidate is Aras Habib, leader of the Iraqi National Congress, which was founded by the late Iraqi politician Ahmed Chalabi.

Sabean-Mandaean Seat (Baghdad)

The final quota seat is for the Sabean-Mandaeans, followers of an ancient Gnostic religion. Thirteen candidates are contesting, with incumbent Osama al-Badri being close to Iraqi PM al-Sudani. Another candidate, Salam Naim al-Zuhairi, is backed by the Iraqi Communist Party. Plus a field of independents (e.g., Bassam Jasim al-Zuhairi, Osama Sadoun al-Khudadi, Asaad Abdul-Jabbar, Wissam Qasim, Mashriq al-Saifi, Khidr al-Zuhairi, Tariq Jasim al-Zuhairi).