Administrative districts in Baghdad

[1] The number of neighbourhood representatives on the district council is based upon the community's population.

These official subdivisions of the city served as administrative centers for the delivery of municipal services but until 2003 had no political function.

Beginning in April 2003, the U.S. controlled Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) began the process of creating new functions for these subdivisions.

The CPA convened a series of meetings in each neighborhood to explain local government, to describe the caucus election process and to encourage participants to spread the word and bring friends, relatives and neighbors to subsequent meetings.

This system of 127 separate councils may seem overly cumbersome but Baghdad Province is home to approximately seven million people.