ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A complaint filed by 14 people from the Kurdistan Region’s provinces is currently before Iraq’s top court, decrying issues of voting machines not recognizing their fingerprints, ahead of the Region’s upcoming parliamentary elections.
Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court on Monday held the first hearing for the case filed against the head of the commissioners' council of the IHEC.
Ayad Kakayi, the lawyer representing the plaintiffs, told Rudaw that the complainants are from the provinces of Duhok, Erbil, and Sulaimani, but represent “thousands of people facing fingerprint identification issues.”
The plaintiffs are demanding that the head of the commissioners’ council resolve the issue, proposing three solutions: extending the registration period, using iris recognition as an alternative biometric method, or setting up a special registration process for those affected.
In May, the commission issued a directive to halt biometric registrations and re-collect biometric fingerprint records for voters whose records were faulty or unrecognized.
According to the commission’s guidelines, up to five percent of voters registered at a polling station are allowed to cast their votes without fingerprint verification; once the threshold is exceeded, only those with valid fingerprints are permitted to vote.
Kurdistan Region President Barzani in March addressed a letter to Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), highlighting concerns relating to the mechanisms of carrying out the Region’s elections, including voting machines not recognizing voter fingerprints.
The ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) previously complained that voting machines did not recognize the fingerprints of around 400,000 individuals, making up approximately 20 percent of all eligible voters.
The Kurdistan Region is set to hold its much-delayed parliamentary elections on October 20.
The Kurdistan Region Presidency met with the IHEC in Erbil on Wednesday to review preparations for the upcoming polls.
Hastyar Qadir contributed to this report.
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