It’s official, the results are in. The Iraqi High Electoral Commission announced on Monday the results for the parliamentary election. Influential Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s Sairoon Coalition has won 54 seats while the Fatah Coalition headed by Hadi al-Amiri came in second place with 47. Incumbent Prime Minister Abadi’s Victory coalition won 42 seats.
In fourth place is Maliki with 25 seats followed by the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) with 23 seats. The PUK won a total of 17 seats in the Iraqi Parliament and newcomer Shaswar and his New Generation movement took four seats. The Kurdish Islamic parties won a combined of 5 seats and Barham Salih gained 2. No coalition government has yet been formed but they have 90 days to do so.
Lastly, a Chinese climber has made history for being the second double amputee to scale Mount Everest, the first from the Nepalese side, after losing his feet to frostbite on the mountain 40 years ago. Xia Boyu never abandoned the dream of reaching the summit and tried 4 more times to climb the world’s tallest mountain before finally doing so this year. The lesson here is to never give up.
