Iraqi parliament late Tuesday approved a new election law that paves the way for greater inclusion of independent political candidates, considered a key demand for protesters.
The law ends the practice of political parties running on unified lists, which allowed them to easily win all seats in a given province. The new law will now divide Iraq's 18 provinces into multiple districts and allocate one parliamentary seat per 100,000 people.
Hundreds of thousands of anti-government protesters have called for sweeping changes to Iraq's political system, which was put in place in the wake of the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. The protesters have blamed the system for widespread corruption and rampant unemployment.