BAGHDAD // Thousands of Iraqis who contested the election, hoping to seize the power and wealth that a parliamentary seat brings, are now having to come to terms with the at-times high price of failure.
While the country awaits final results of its historic ballot, still unsure of exactly who has won, a majority of would-be MPs already know with certainty that they have lost. And some have lost more than merely an election campaign, gambling their life savings and more on their effort to become a professional politician.
For Jafaar al Qada, a 58-year-old resident of Baghdad's Karrada neighbourhood, his wife's bid for a parliamentary seat in the capital ended in financial ruin and divorce.
"She promised that she would win and so we sold the house to pay for the campaign," he said, still so bitterly upset that he refused to mention his wife's first name. "We spent $130,000 [Dh477,000] on posters, adverts, gifts, parties and food. Everyone we met promised to vote for her."
In the end, only 14 people cast their votes in her support.
"It has brought shame on us; it has destroyed our lives," Mr al Qada said. "I told her, if you lose, we'll get divorced, and that is what has happened. We have five children, their lives are in tatters, I'm ruined, I have no money, it has all been lost."
It is that shame that led many losing candidates to refuse interviews with The National. But those closest to the candidates, including doctors and others, spoke about the effect of the elections on the defeated.
These candidates have similar stories, according to Ali al Gharley, a doctor running a medical clinic in New Baghdad. Since the election results started to trickle out, he has seen more than a dozen patients all of whom were prospective MPs, all of whom lost and suffered as a result.
"Most of the cases are heart problems, high blood pressure and so on, from stress," Dr Gharley said. "But I have one case of a parliamentary nominee who had a mental breakdown because of his failure to get elected. He tried to kill himself and is in despair if he sees or hears any news about the election."
Family members told Dr Gharley his patient had spent $170,000 running his unsuccessful campaign for parliament. "People get their hopes up, they take a big gamble on success in every way and they are not in a position to cope with failure," he said. "They think an expensive campaign is an investment in the future; it is not, it is a gamble."
About 6,500 candidates registered for the March 7 poll, fighting for 325 seats - a ratio of 20 hopeful lawmakers for each available space in parliament.
Those long odds against success failed to deter large numbers of complete unknowns and tiny independent parties from trying their luck.
While all the campaign rhetoric suggested selfless motivations and a simple desire to serve their fellow countrymen, some of the hopefuls surely had at least half an eye on more personal gains.
Life as an Iraqi MP brings with it numerous perks and privileges. For starters, a monthly payment of $25,000 in salary and staff allowances - earnings far in excess of anything most Iraqis could ever command.
In addition to that, MPs enjoy a pension worth 80 per cent of their final salary for one decade after leaving office, plus the gift of a large plot of land to help ease their way into post-political life.
Sitting MPs can also claim tens of thousands of dollars in cheap loans, get diplomatic passports and, most lucratively, win access to business opportunities.
Iraq's last batch of parliamentarians, elected in 2005, did little to enhance their reputation as servants of the people; scores of lawmakers frequently failed to show up for debates on crucial legislation. Some apparently spent more time in Beirut, London or Dubai than in Baghdad. Understandable perhaps, but not something ordinary Iraqis, suffering from violence, poverty and corruption, were very happy about.
The icing on the cake came in November when, with election laws deadlocked and long-delayed, MPs found the time to vote through a new lavish package of perks for themselves. The election rules were only approved at a later date, leaving little time for officials to overcome the practical difficulties of running a ballot, a fact they say explains the current chaos in counting votes.
Such incidents have helped create a strong grassroots impression that, rather than devote themselves to crucial legal issues in a war-torn country, Iraq's MPs are living on easy street.
In Baghdad's Karrada nighbourhood, the area's police station has seen a surge in complaints filed by irate campaign donors, according to Capt Mohammad Ali, an officer based there.
"Some of the people running for parliament have borrowed a lot of money to pay for their campaigns and when they lose, they can't pay it back," he said. "We have a case where someone owes more than $150,000 to various lenders."
Capt Ali said efforts to track down high-spending politicians had run into trouble. "The truth is, many of them seem to have left the country rather than pay the money back."
It is a situation that has left him, as well as those lending out cash, furious. "If these thieves wanted to run the country, I suppose we must be happy they didn't get elected because they would have stolen even more from us all if they had won," he said.
Students at Mustansariya University in the Iraqi capital have also complained of suffering as a result of the election. According to Abbas Urdani, a history undergraduate, one of his professors stood for parliament and insisted students get their families to support him.
"He didn't win and blames us all for not getting enough votes; he's so angry that it is affecting our studies, it's making classes impossible. He seems to want us to fail our degrees as he failed in the election."
Such problems, according to Dr Gharley, the Baghdad physician treating nominee patients, underlined a need for new election laws.
"Democracy is new here and people don't understand it, they think it's an easy thing to get elected, or they see it as a business," he said. "They are naive, they have no idea about the process and they risk everything and lose everything.
"We need to stop a repeat of this. We need a system that educates those who want to enter politics so they know exactly what they are getting into."
nlatif@thenational.ae
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
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Bharat
Director: Ali Abbas Zafar
Starring: Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Sunil Grover
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The specs
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The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
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Zayed Sustainability Prize
Water waste
In the UAE’s arid climate, small shrubs, bushes and flower beds usually require about six litres of water per square metre, daily. That increases to 12 litres per square metre a day for small trees, and 300 litres for palm trees.
Horticulturists suggest the best time for watering is before 8am or after 6pm, when water won't be dried up by the sun.
A global report published by the Water Resources Institute in August, ranked the UAE 10th out of 164 nations where water supplies are most stretched.
The Emirates is the world’s third largest per capita water consumer after the US and Canada.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
JAPANESE GRAND PRIX INFO
Schedule (All times UAE)
First practice: Friday, 5-6.30am
Second practice: Friday, 9-10.30am
Third practice: Saturday, 7-8am
Qualifying: Saturday, 10-11am
Race: Sunday, 9am-midday
Race venue: Suzuka International Racing Course
Circuit Length: 5.807km
Number of Laps: 53
Watch live: beIN Sports HD
The permutations for UAE going to the 2018 World Cup finals
To qualify automatically
UAE must beat Iraq.
Australia must lose in Japan and at home to Thailand, with their losing margins and the UAE's winning margin over Iraq being enough to overturn a goal difference gap of eight.
Saudi Arabia must lose to Japan, with their losing margin and the UAE's winning margin over Iraq being enough to overturn a goal difference gap of eight.
To finish third and go into a play-off with the other third-placed AFC side for a chance to reach the inter-confederation play-off match
UAE must beat Iraq.
Saudi Arabia must lose to Japan, with their losing margin and the UAE's winning margin over Iraq being enough to overturn a goal difference gap of eight.