As Kurdistan Votes, New Devices Hamper Process

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – As people across the Kurdistan Region went to the polls on Saturday, new electronic devices introduced for the first time to smooth and secure the process nearly brought the voting process to a halt at many polling stations.

Rudaw reporters in Sulaimani and Duhok saw some polling stations unable to receive voters due to the devices, which places a unique code and time stamp on each ballot, but takes too long to do so – 90 seconds for each voter.

Flaws with the new device were discovered when Kurdistan’s security and Peshmarga army went to the polls on Thursday, two days before voting opened to the general public. On Thursday, officials said there were so many problems with the devices that only about a dozen people could vote every two hours.

Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani, who was among the first people to cast his ballot on Saturday, said that the new device should not discourage people from going to the polls.

“We brought this machine to regulate the voting process,” said Handren Muhammad, the head of the Erbil branch of the election commission. “In previous elections there were a lot of complaints about voting irregularities,” he told Rudaw.

Other than problems with the device, by early afternoon voting had gone ahead smoothly in the three-province Kurdistan Region. But earlier in the day Muhammad Faraj, the leader of the Islamic Union, came in for criticism for continuing the campaign on election day.

“We believe we will be the winner among all the political parties, or we will win a great number of seats in Parliament,” Faraj said to the media.

Hogr Chato, a leading election expert and head of the Shams Network, said Faraj broke election rules with his statement. “That statement is considered a violation of the election law. That was propaganda for his party and the election campaign has officially stopped.”

Sardar Doski, president of the People and Politics Institute, estimates voter turnout at 78 to 80 percent. “A parliamentary seat may need around 18,000 votes,” he said. He believes that many smaller and new blocs who have joined the elections may not win enough votes to win any of the 111-seats being contested.

The elections are largely a race that will determine whether the dominant Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and smaller Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) can continue their uneasy partnership in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

Out to rupture that relationship is the Change Movement (Gorran), the novice opposition that has fought only one other legislative election, in 2009, shortly after breaking away from the PUK. But in those polls it won a stunning 25 seats, not far shy of the PUK’s own 29 seats and the KDP’s 30. This time, Gorran is eyeing a partnership in the KRG.