Hawre Tofiq, head of the IHEC Sulaimani branch, urged political parties to inform people about the need to obtain an electronic voter card.
“Whoever does not have an electronic voter card, will in no way be eligible to vote,” he said.
This is the first election that the electronic voter cards have been used.
Tofiq said that some 600,000 people who have already registered can collect their voter cards.
He urged displaced persons to register as well, as IDPs.
“We have until now registered 17,000 IDPs into the biometric system, many of them were from Mosul, Anbar and Salahaddin,” he said.
Iraqi citizens displaced from their homes must first visit the Migration Department in the area where they are sheltering temporarily, and then bring their documents to the election commission to register for the elections.
Polling stations designated for the IDPs will be in place on voting day, Tofiq explained.
The commission official added that they will also set up polling stations outside Iraq for the diaspora community, who must register on the commission’s official website, “otherwise, they will not be able to vote.”
In addition to the electronic card, voters must present identity documents when they go to vote.
Tofiq invited university graduates to also register on the website to be included in a lottery to select poll observers.
The decision to hire observers via electronic lottery is to mitigate concerns from political parties that in previous elections staff were hired based on their political allegiances, Tofiq explained.
