BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) on Wednesday test-drove the country’s electronic voting system ahead of parliamentary elections.
The process was supervised by Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi.
“Voters are required to bring their electoral biometric card and ID to vote, and they will then be given a ballot,” Abbas Farhan, head of the electoral administration, told Rudaw. “Voters who do not yet have their new biometric card can use their old card to cast their vote, but the requirements will be very strict, receiving fingerprints of all ten fingers.”
At least 25 million Iraqis are eligible to vote in the October 10 parliamentary elections.
So far, 17 million voters have collected their new electoral biometric cards.
According to UNAMI's representative in Iraq, the UN will have a team of 800 people assisting IHEC and monitoring the vote.
“The UN is here, in the country, with the biggest election team worldwide. We’ll be in at the end of September,” said Ingibjorg Solrun Gisladottir, a representative for UN mission to Iraq. “It’s premature to say anything about how the elections will be. That’s the role of the monitors to look and see, and we have to wait until after election day.”
In addition to the UN team, 500 observers from Arab and other countries will monitor the election.
The European Union will also have around 80 election observers present on election day.
There are a total of 3,249 candidates, including 951 women, vying for 329 seats in the parliament.
Translation and video editing by Sarkawt Mohammed
