Covid and political concerns behind the population census delay in Iraq

The Undersecretary of the Iraqi Ministry of Planning, Maher Hammad, stated that the delay in the population census for this year was caused by the pandemic and the lockdown, in addition to the budget delay, pointing out that the government is determined to conduct it next year because of its importance on the developmental level. While experts in the economic matter stated that the obstruction of implementing the census is due to political reasons and the demographic change that occurred in some areas, and it has dimensions that will reveal the sources of corruption also, in terms of distributing financial resources equitably among the governorates based on population ratio and gender. It is mentioned that the last population census in Iraq was conducted in 1997.