Iraq’s president ratified on Thursday a new election law aimed at giving political independents a better chance of winning seats in parliament, paving the way for early elections next year.

President Barham Saleh stressed the need for free, fair and transparent balloting that would restore the Iraqi citizens’ confidence in the legitimacy of the process.

The new law changes each of the country’s 18 provinces into several electoral districts and prevents parties from running on unified lists, which has in the past helped them easily sweep all the seats in a specific province. Instead, the seats would go to whoever gets the most votes in the electoral districts.

Source: The Baghdad Post