Although the election was well organized and passed off peacefully, the monitor noted cases of fraud and other violations.
“Generally, the elections were held in a peaceful environment, unlike the expectations that the political rivalries between the parties in the Kurdistan Region would spill over in the process,” said Hogir Chato, the monitor’s chief, while unveiling the Shams report at a press conference on Monday.
“Yes there were incidents, but they weren’t major,” he said.
Shams worked with 21 partner organizations, employing 623 monitors, 32 foreign observers, and 61 mobile teams, to assess proceedings outside polling stations.
Its report includes several positive observations.
Polling stations opened on time in the presence of commission employees, the report said. The presence of representatives from more than one political party at each station acted as a “guarantee” for elections to proceed well.
The commission’s “operations room” was quick to respond to the network’s complaints and reported issues, it added.
It also had serious complaints, however.
“Unfortunately, some of the commission employees didn’t implement the measures in a uniform way,” said Chato.
This was due to lack of expertise, training of commission employees, and station managers were not impartial,” he added.
The secrecy of the ballot was violated in several cases where voters collectively entered polling booths and took photographs of their ballot papers.
Asayish security forces, chieftains, and party representatives also exerted pressure on commission employees to relax the rules to allow double voting, voting with forged documents, and the stuffing of ballot boxes, it said.
“We will give the commission our full report of these stations and ballots for it to go under investigation. They have promised us that they will undertake serious investigation of these ballot boxes,” Chato added.
Other violations included campaigning outside polling stations, the freezing of the names of multiple individuals, and the forcing out of monitors and party representatives.
Shams offered several recommendations. It called on the commission to disclose the results as soon as possible, to deal with complaints fairly, and to punish commission employees who left their stations or did not do their job properly.
The Kurdistan Region’s parliamentary elections were held on Sunday, September 30.
Maja Kocijancic, the European Union’s spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, hailed the election.
“It is positive that first reports confirm a peaceful and orderly ballot. Vote counting should now be completed speedily and transparently, the results should be accepted by all parties and any claims of irregularities addressed through the available procedures, leading to the swift constitution of a new Parliament and Government,” she said in a statement on Monday.
Updated 8.53 p.m.
