Iraqi cardinal pushes for Christian quota reform before vote

Cardinal Sako said the current parliamentary representation of Christians was ‘incorrect’

An Iraqi cardinal has called for a major change in how Christian representatives are elected to the country’s parliament, ahead of a vote scheduled for October.

Chaldean Catholic leader Cardinal Louis Raphaël Sako, pictured during a June 2023 visit to London, England. © Mazur/cbcew.org.uk.

Cardinal Louis Raphaël Sako issued the appeal March 26, arguing that the current process failed to ensure Iraq’s Christian minority was genuinely represented in parliament.

In Iraq, Sako’s move is likely to be seen as part of his ongoing clash with Rayan al-Kildani, a party leader who styles himself as the de facto protector of Iraq’s Christian minority.

Sako is the head of the Chaldean Catholic Church, Iraq’s largest Christian community and one of the 23 autonomous Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the pope.

His intervention is significant because four of the five seats allocated to Christians in the Council of Representatives of Iraq are currently occupied by members of the Babylon Movement, a Christian party founded by al-Kildani and politically aligned with the country’s Shia Muslim majority.

Sako and al-Kildani clashed publicly in 2023, prompting the cardinal to leave Baghdad for nine months of self-imposed exile.

In his message, Sako noted that the Chaldean Church was encouraging its members to register to vote in the October parliamentary election.

But he said: “Our current representation is incorrect, and we refuse to be used as fuel for the interests of others. From this standpoint, I appeal to the Shias, Sunnis, and Kurds in the federal government to help us regain our representation, our role, and our rights.”

“I propose restricting voting for quota seats to Christians through a special voter registry, so they can choose whoever they believe is most capable of serving their country.”

The restriction of voting for the five quota seats to Christians would require a substantial change to the present system, in which all registered voters in a specific region can cast ballots for candidates for reserved seats regardless of their religion.

In Iraq’s parliament, nine seats are currently reserved for minorities out of 329 seats. One seat each is allocated to Yazidis, Shabaks, Mandaeans, and Feyli Kurds.

The five Christian seats are distributed by region, with one seat each in Baghdad, Duhok, Erbil, Nineveh, and Kirkuk, all of which have sizable Christian communities.

Each seat is contested in the respective region, with candidates drawn from Christian political parties or standing as independents.

The Babylon Movement’s victory in four out of the five ballots in the last parliamentary election, in 2021, was controversial. The fifth seat was reportedly won by an independent candidate.

Former member of parliament Joseph Sliwa argued that the election winners did not truly represent Christians because 90% of the votes they gained were from non-Christians.

“The votes and parliament seats are not real,” he told the Rudaw Media Network, based in the Kurdistan Region.

Critics alleged that the Babylon Movement won the seats thanks to support from Shia voters mobilized by the Christian party’s allies in the Shiite Coordination Framework, a coalition of Shia Muslim parties.

Criticism of the present Christian quota system was expressed years before the 2021 election.

In a 2018 paper, the Assyrian Policy Institute said: “A loophole in Iraqi electoral law has left the voting process for the selection of the Christian MPs who will fill the seats reserved by the quotas open to non-Christian voters, which enables powerful non-Christian parties to exploit the quota system.”

Cardinal Sako has criticized the present Christian quota system on previous occasions. But his new appeal comes amid a national debate over possible amendments to the electoral system ahead of the parliamentary election.

According to Iraqi media, politicians are discussing whether to amend the country’s electoral law, expanding the number of parliamentary seats to reflect the results of a November 2024 census, the first comprehensive population survey for almost 40 years.

Almost 30 million Iraqis, out of a total population of around 45 million, are eligible to vote in the upcoming elections, up from 25 million in the 2021 election.

Tensions between Cardinal Sako and Rayan al-Kildani came to public attention in early 2023.

Al-Kildani, who claims to represent the interests of the country’s Chaldean minority, accused Sako of “establishing parties, engaging in electoral battles, and jeopardizing the security and future of Christians in Iraq.”

The cardinal, in turn, said that al-Kildani was “self-aggrandizing and wants to become a leader.”

After Iraq’s President Abdul Latif Rashid rescinded a civil decree recognizing Sako as head of the Chaldean Catholic Church, the cardinal announced his decision to withdraw from Baghdad and settle in a monastery in the Kurdistan Region.

He said he took the step following a “deliberate and humiliating campaign” against him by al-Kildani’s supporters.

Sako returned to Baghdad in April 2024 at the invitation of Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani.

Not all Chaldean Catholic leaders are believed to share Sako’s negative assessment of al-Kildani — one of many disagreements besetting Iraq’s Chaldean hierarchy.

A lawsuit filed in a U.S. court in February accused Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil of being a “close associate” of al-Kildani, who was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2019. Warda categorically denied the lawsuit’s claims.

In a November 2024 interview with The Pillar, Warda addressed claims that he is close to al-Kildani.

He said: “I am not a politician, I am a bishop, and as such my door is open to everyone.”

“Of course, it should be said that Rayan al-Kildani works in Baghdad, not in Erbil, politically he is completely outside of my region.”

He added: “But people should know that I have welcomed, and will welcome, anyone, because the role of the Church is to be a bridge of peace and reconciliation.”

Cardinal Sako said in September 2024 that he had filed a canonical complaint against several Chaldean bishops, including Warda. Sako had previously criticized the bishops for skipping a July 2024 episcopal synod, which bishops are ordinarily required by canon law to attend, and an August 2024 spiritual retreat.

The number of Christians in Iraq may have fallen as low as 250,000, from around 1.5 million at the start of the 21st century.

The advocacy group Open Doors ranked Iraq as the 17th-worst place in the world in which to be a Christian in its 2025 World Watch List.

“There seems to be less tolerance for Christians even in areas where they were previously more welcome, such as in the Kurdistan Region,” the group said.

“Without meaningful reforms and guarantees of Christian rights, many fear the exodus of Christians from Iraq will continue unabated.”