New Iraqi Leadership Confronts Water Shortage and Economic Strain

Iraqis voted in a parliamentary election on 11 November and, though pre-election surveys predicted a record-low turnout, the final total turnout was 56.11% according to the Independent High Electoral Commission.  (Turnout for the 2021 parliamentary election was 43.3%.) Incumbent prime minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani’s Construction and Development Coalition, won 46 seats in the 329-seat Council of Representatives of Iraq. Now the election is over and Sudani faces the task of building a governing coalition. (After the 2021 election,…