The provincial assemblies in Iraq were dissolved in 2019 following the anti-government protests.

According to a written statement released by the Iraqi Parliament, the provincial elections will be held on November 6, 2023.

The elections concern 15 provinces out of 18 in the country. There will be no elections in three provinces in southern Kurdistan (northern Iraq).

In federal Iraq, provincial assemblies have relatively significant authority. They can allocate budgets for the health, transport or education sectors.

The elections on November 6 will be the first provincial elections since 2013. The candidate list of Shiite Nuri al-Maliki won the elections in 2013.

The next elections were supposed to take place in 2018 but were postponed. A year later, when a massive social movement swept through Iraq, the provincial assemblies were dissolved. The opposition and a significant part of the public regard the provincial assemblies as a hotbed of corruption.

Alaa al-Rikabi, an independent deputy who took part in the protest movement in 2019, told French news agency AFP that the provincial assemblies established by the 2005 Constitution after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime “led to massive corruption”. He added that: “We do not accept their re-establishment.”