Region

BAGHDAD — Turnout hit a record low for parliamentary elections in war-scarred Iraq, early figures showed Monday, amid widespread disillusionment about a political elite seen as inept and corrupt.

Sunday's vote was moved forward from 2022 as a concession to an anti-government protest movement that has demanded deep reforms in the oil-rich yet poverty-stricken country.

But in the end voter participation hit a new low in Iraq's fifth election since the 2003 US-led invasion that ousted leader Saddam Hussein with the promise of bringing freedom and democracy.

Preliminary turnout was just 41 per cent, the electoral commission said, below the 44.5 per cent recorded in 2018. Official preliminary results had not yet been released and were expected later Monday.

"There's general apathy. People just don't believe that elections matter," said Iraqi researcher Sajad Jiyad of the Century Foundation think-tank.

“The weak turnout is a warning. It is not only the legitimacy of the next prime minister that is in question, but also the legitimacy of the government, of the state — of the entire system.”

Kerar Haider, who was busy removing campaign posters from the streets of the capital’s Kerrada district, said he did not vote “because it is useless”.

“The same faces always come back,” the 26-year-old said.

Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhemi brought forward the vote to appease a youth-led protest movement that erupted two years ago against graft, unemployment and crumbling public services.

Iraq is a major oil producer but nearly a third of its almost 40 million people live in poverty, according to UN figures, and the COVID pandemic only deepened a long-running crisis.

The premier and national spy chief tweeted that he had “kept his promise and done his duty by organising fair elections”.

Kadhemi’s own political future is now uncertain, with few observers willing to predict who will emerge as leader after the usual political haggling between factions that follow Iraqi elections.

Early fireworks 

The election was held under tight security in a country where key parliamentary blocs have armed factions and the Daesh terrorists have launched mass-casualty suicide attacks this year.

Airports were closed and travel between provinces banned, while voters were searched twice at polling stations.

An attack blamed on Daesh on a voting centre in a remote part of northern Iraq left a police officer dead, a security source said.

And a soldier was killed and another wounded by “accidental fire” from a fellow soldier at a polling station in Diyala province bordering Baghdad, officials said.

Authorities also reported the arrest of 77 suspects for electoral “violations”.

The vote was marred by technical problems at some stations, including malfunctioning equipment and fingerprint readers, officials and AFP journalists said.

Official provisional results were now expected later Monday, but some candidates already claimed victory and celebrated with fireworks overnight in Baghdad and the southern city of Nasiriyah.

Fragmented parliament 

In Sunday’s election, some 25 million eligible voters were called to choose from more than 3,200 candidates.

A new single-member constituency system for electing Iraq’s 329 lawmakers aimed to boost independents versus the traditional blocs largely centred on religious, ethnic and clan affiliations.

Iraqi politics, and the legislature, have been dominated by factions representing the country’s Shiite Muslim majority since the fall of Saddam’s Sunni-led regime.

But they are increasingly split, including in their attitudes towards powerful Shiite neighbour Iran, which competes with the United States for strategic influence in Iraq.

The biggest bloc has been the Sadrist camp of Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr, a political maverick and former anti-US militia leader who opposes all foreign influence in Iraq.

Sadr was among those who hailed their electoral “success” ahead of official preliminary results.

The most powerful pro-Iranian factions are from the bloc linked to the Hashed Al Shaabi umbrella group of paramilitary groups, which helped defeat Daesh.

Experts say the large blocs are likely to preserve their dominance in the fragmented parliament, where the lack of a clear majority will force them to negotiate alliances.

Iraq by convention has had a Shiite Muslim prime minister, a Sunni parliament speaker and a Kurdish president.

AFRIN, Syria — A car bombing in the northern Syrian city of Afrin on Monday killed six people, including at least one Turkey-backed rebel fighter, a war monitor said.

An AFP video journalist saw civil defence members douse the charred remains of a car with water, as rescue workers carried away what appeared to be a victim's remains under a blanket on a stretcher.

Afrin, like all Syrian areas held by pro-Turkish rebels, is the scene of regular targeted killings, bombings and shootings that largely remain unclaimed.

On Monday, an explosives-laden vehicle detonated in "an area crowded with civilians" in the centre of the city, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The explosion hit near a market and military outpost for the hardline Jaysh Al Islam rebel group, according to the monitor which relies on a network of sources inside Syria.

At least two civilians and one Jaysh fighter were among those killed, while 12 other people were wounded, the Observatory said.

“Hospitals in Afrin received charred corpses of unidentified persons,” it added.

According to the observatory, a local police force in Afrin arrested two young men suspected of involvement.

Last month, Afrin was hit by four separate attacks using explosive devices, including one targeting the vehicle of a rebel commander.

Turkey and its Syrian proxies have seized territory inside Syria in several military operations since 2016 against the Daesh group and the Kurdish YPG militia.

In March 2018, they seized the town of Afrin after pushing out Syrian Kurdish forces.

The conflict in Syria has killed nearly 500,000 people since it started in 2011 with the brutal repression of peaceful demonstrations.

ZAHRANI, Lebanon — Firefighters in Lebanon put out a huge blaze that raged at a key fuel storage depot on Monday to the relief of many in the country gripped by desperate energy shortages.

There was no immediate report of casualties from the fire that sent large plumes of dark smoke billow into the sky.

The fire broke out around 8:00am (05:00 GMT) in a large petrol tank belonging to the army at the Zahrani facilities some 50 kilometres south of Beirut, the National News Agency and local media said.

An AFP photographer said firefighters put out the flames at around noon (09:00 GMT), and civil defence chief Raymond Khattar told the press the blaze was "under control".

Ziyad Al Zein, head of facilities at Zahrani, said the fire broke out as the tank was being emptied.

"We noticed an inclination in the reservoir's roof yesterday and took immediate measures... this morning to transfer its contents," he said, adding that "it would have been a disaster if the fire had spread to nearby tanks".

Energy Minister Walid Fayad said the flames had consumed around 250,000 litres of gasoline and that an investigation had been launched into the cause of the fire.

The army cordoned off the area, cutting off roads leading to the depot as well as the main highway linking Beirut to the country's south, the photographer said.

'Loud bang' 

The Zahrani site also houses a power plant of the same name, and provides 15 per cent of the country's fuel oil.

A worker in a plantation nearby told AFP he had heard a loud bang before the fire broke out.

The small Mediterranean nation is battling one of the world's worst economic crises since the 1850s, and has in recent months struggled to import enough fuel oil for its power plants.

In recent months, Lebanese have only received one or two hours of state electricity a day.

The fire comes after the electricity grid went completely offline on Saturday.

That outage came after two key power plants, including the one in Zahrani, ran out of fuel.

By Sunday limited supply was back after the army provided gas oil.

Most Lebanese saw no major change to their daily lives during the blackout, as those who can afford it have already subscribed to private generators to keep the lights on during the almost round-the-clock power cuts.

Petrol has also been in short supply, forcing motorists to queue for hours outside gas stations to fill up their tanks.

TUNIS — Tunisia’s President Kais Saied appointed a new government on Monday, 11 weeks after firing the last one in a controversial power grab, as the country faces acute economic and political crises.

State television broadcast a swearing-in ceremony of the cabinet headed by Najla Bouden, the North African country’s first female prime minister.

Bouden vowed that “the fight against corruption will be the most important aim” of the new government, in her first public speech since her nomination.

The trained geologist also pledged to “raise living standards” of Tunisians and “restore their faith in the state”.

But Saied has significantly pared back the powers of her office and will technically head the administration himself.

The president on July 25 sacked the previous prime minister, Hichem Mechichi, suspended parliament and granted himself judicial powers.

Opponents termed his move a coup but many Tunisians, sick of a political class seen as corrupt and incompetent, intially welcomed it.

Saied, a former legal academic, has repeatedly criticised the constitution Tunisia adopted in 2014 which brought in a mixed parliamentary-presidential system, three years after a revolution overthrew veteran dictator Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali.

The president named Bouden as premier on September 29, more than two months after sacking the administration of Mechichi and removing lawmakers’ immunity.

In a speech following Monday’s ceremony, Saied reiterated that his moves were constitutional in light of “imminent peril” facing Tunisia.

He said he had acted to “save the Tunisian state from the clutches of those who lurk at home and abroad, and from those who see their office as booty or as a means to loot public funds”.

He also vowed to “cleanse the judiciary”.

‘Drift from democracy’ 

Saied, who was elected in late 2019, seized an array of powers amid a socio-economic crisis aggravated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The move came as Tunisia faces a looming debt crisis, spiralling inflation and widespread unemployment worsened by the coronavirus pandemic.

Bouden, 63, is a political unknown and is not known to have economic expertise, although the new Economy Minister Samir Saied and Finance Minister Sihem Boughdiri both have experience in financial policy.

Economist and former trade minister Mohsen Hassan last month urged the new administration to return urgently to bailout talks with international donors, saying Tunisia was “paying the price of political instability”, the coronavirus crisis and “the political class’s ignorance of economics”.

Civil society groups have warned of a drift away from democracy and on Sunday at least 6,000 people demonstrated in central Tunis against Saied’s power grab.

Only two members of the previous administration were included in Monday’s line-up: Chief diplomat Othman Jarandi and Education Minister Fethi Selouati.

The strategically vital interior ministry will be led by Taoufik Charfeddine, a Saied ally who held the position in 2020 until he was sacked by Mechichi.

Many have seen Saied’s moves as a blow to the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha Party that has dominated Tunisia’s post-revolution politics, but some demonstrators in Tunis on Sunday also voiced support for Moncef Marzouki, who served as president between 2011 and 2014 and now lives in Paris.

The president on Monday said he would “make efforts in the coming days” to launch a “genuine national dialogue” involving Tunisians from across the country.

Feminist groups have hailed Bouden’s nomination as a step forward for women in Tunisia, seen as a pioneer for women’s rights in the Arab world.

But many have questioned how much power she will have given that Saied — who has long opposed gender equality in inheritance laws — will have the final say in government decisions.

Ennahdha slammed her nomination by presidential decree as “unconstitutional”.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israeli lawmakers flanked by former president Donald Trump’s daughter and son-in-law launched an initiative in Jerusalem on Monday to advance the Abraham Accords that saw Arab states normalise ties with Israel.

Jared Kushner, a former White House adviser married to Ivanka Trump, was a major architect of the deals between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco.

At the launch of the Abraham Accords Caucus in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, Kushner said the agreements created a “new paradigm” in the region, which could have “very different outcomes” depending on the actions of current leaders.

Critics of the Trump approach accused him of advancing Arab reconciliation with Israel as a substitute for meaningful efforts to advance the rights of the Palestinians.

The accords broke with decades of Arab consensus that there would be no relations with Israel while the Palestinian question remains unresolved.

Trump considered the accords a major foreign policy legacy.

They were signed by former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was cheered at Monday’s event, but the pacts have been fully supported by the coalition that ousted him in June.

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, Netanyahu’s staunch political rival, said at the launch that he would work to “expand the circle of the Abraham Accords” during an upcoming visit to Washington.

Israeli media have reported on some frustration among Israeli officials about a lack of momentum from President Joe Biden’s administration to expand the accords engineered under Trump.

Biden’s Secretary of State Antony Blinken promised last month to encourage more Arab countries to recognise Israel to “keep normalisation marching forward”.

He is to meet in Washington next week with Lapid and UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah Bin Zayed to discuss “progress made” since the signing of the pacts.

Several former top Trump administration officials were also in Jerusalem on Monday, coinciding with the launch.

Trump’s former ambassador to Israel David Friedman and ex-treasury secretary Stephen Mnuchin were due to open a museum exhibit.