A Geographical Analysis of the Parties’ Votes in the Electoral Districts of Kurdistan Region for the 2021 Election of the Council of Representatives of Iraq

Abstract

The geography of election investigates the results of election, the distribution of electoral circles, voters, census, voter registration, electoral law, and any other geographical factors that directly or indirectly affect the election process. This type of geography is to analyze the voting for the participating parties and candidates in the process. The significance of the present paper is due to its investigation of the election which was brought forward and was a response to the requirements of Iraqi 2021 protests. Additionally, for the first time, it was held in the system of multiple electoral circles in Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan Region. The election also witnessed a change in the number of circles to reflect greater geographical representation. Consequently, the study explores the influence of changes in the number of election circles on the whole process, people’s participation rate, the voting distribution for the parties, and the difference between each circle’s boundaries and the related areas. Additionally, the study aims at identifying the feasibility of having multiple circles system in the elections and analyzing the increase and decrease trends of the voters’ voting to the participated parties, the parties’ parliament seats, and how these votes are and will be distributed. To analyze the data, the researchers used both spatial and analytical analysis methods. The research findings reveal that a large number of people (48%) did not go to vote on the election day, the number of spoilt ballots was considerably high, and in the system of multiple electoral territories, there is more geographical representation and equality.