of representing citizens,” and “enemies of the sect”. The statements quickly gained traction online,
with multiple accounts reposting the videos thereby amplifying their reach.
The framing of such messages was designed to provoke fear, anger, and rejection of women’s political
agency. By presenting feminist or gender equality positions as existential threats to religion and
society, what might constitute legitimate political disagreement was transformed into moral and
sectarian confrontation. Voters were pressured to oppose women candidates not based on their
political programs or legislative records, but through gendered stereotypes and moral accusations.
Electoral silence – 8 November 2025
Iraq entered the electoral silence period on Saturday morning, 8 November 2025, at 7:00 a.m., as
declared by the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC).9 During this phase, all campaigning
and electoral activities by candidates and political parties are meant to be suspended. The purpose of
electoral silence is to afford citizens with a period of calm deliberation, free from the pressure of active
political messaging or last-minute campaigning.
Special Voting – 9 November 2025
Special voting took place on Saturday, 9 November 2025, under the supervision of the Independent
High Electoral Commission and covered two principal categories of voter: members of the security
forces and internally displaced persons (IDPs). This phase is designed to enable eligible voters unable
to participate on the main polling day to exercise their voting rights in advance.
According to IHEC, nearly 1.1 million out of 1.3 million registered security forces personnel voted,
resulting in a turnout rate of 82.5 percent across the polling stations assigned to military and security
institutions.10 In the case of IDPs, 20,527 voters cast their ballots out of 26,538 registered voters,
representing a turnout rate of 77 percent across designated polling centres in multiple governorates.
By the end of the special voting process, the total number of voters reached 1,104,816, corresponding
to an overall participation rate of 82.42 percent among all eligible special voters. Of this total,
1,082,052 voters were men and 22,764 were women, as shown in Figure 1.
This pronounced gender imbalance reflects the composition of groups eligible for special voting,
particularly the security and military sectors, which are male dominated in Iraq. As a result, women’s
participation in special voting was structurally limited, highlighting how institutional factors shape
gender representation even in phases of the electoral process that appear to be formally inclusive.
Figure 1:
Male and Female
voters during special
voting
9
المفوضية العليا المستقلة لالنتخابات. (2025, November 7). Electoral silence [Facebook post]. Facebook.
http://archive.today/DVhv2
10
Independent High Electoral Commission. (2025, November). التصويت/ اف
تقرير الغلق النتخابات مجلس النواب العر ي
[ الخاصWeb page]. Independent High Electoral Commission. https://ihec.iq/40823/2025/11/
15