ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Electronic voting boxes have been prepared for parliamentary elections next year, Iraq’s High Independent Electoral Commission has told Rudaw. Ali Qadir, head of the commission’s office in Erbil, told Rudaw that Iraq’s next parliamentary elections will be conducted electronically. “The electronic boxes do not need electricity or internet to work. They work on a vista system and have their own batteries. The boxes will themselves count and separate the votes at the time the votes are cast,” Qadir said. He also said that the local commission has made preparations for Iraq’s parliamentary elections, adding that the necessary equipment is already prepared for this purpose. The extending of voting deadlines has been a controversial procedure in many previous Iraqi elections. “[The machines] don’t accept time extensions as they work according to the time specified for the voting process,” added Qadir. Iraq has been divided into 18 districts for the election process. Parliamentary elections originally scheduled for September were postponed as many areas of Iraq continued to be in strife because of the ISIS war. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who himself faces re-election, has announced national elections are to be held on May 15, 2018.
