Iraq will hold provincial council elections on December 18, the first of their kind since 2013. The councils, created by the 2005 Iraqi constitution following the fall of Saddam Hussein, are powerful bodies that hold significant power in the country, including setting the budgets for several sectors such as education, health, and transport.
“Around 50,000 surveillance cameras will be installed in polling stations for the first time to ensure transparency in the electoral process,” Jumana Ghali, spokesperson for Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), told Rudaw’s Hastyar Qadir.
According to Ghali, the electoral commission is required by law to use “advanced technologies” such as surveillance cameras to maintain the legitimacy of the vote.
Authorities and representatives of the electoral body, the judiciary, and the Joint Operations Command held a meeting in Baghdad on Tuesday to discuss preparations for securing the electoral process for the provincial elections, Iraqi state media said.
During the meeting, the electoral commission was ordered to “present a plan to update voter records, give details of election sites and storage sites, and cooperate with civil defense” during the vote.
Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid met with IHEC head Omar Mohammed in the meantime, stressing the need to adhere to the electoral timeline for holding the provincial elections and to bolster the “necessary mechanisms to enforce” the law during the vote, according to a statement from the Iraqi presidency.
On Monday, Iraq’s integrity commission formally requested IHEC to handover the names of leaders of political parties and alliances in order for their wealth and properties to be investigated.
The provincial elections will mark the return of the controversial Sainte-Laguë voting method, reverting back to the single-constituency per province system instead of the multiple-constituency system that was adopted for the 2021 parliamentary elections.
Parliament dissolved the Sainte-Laguë system in response to massive protests against corruption and unemployment that engulfed the country in October 2019. Protestors accused the councils of being rife with corruption.
As part of the single-constituency system, better-funded, established parties are more favored over independent candidates.
As of Monday, 77 political parties and 41 alliances have registered with the electoral commission for the Iraqi provincial elections scheduled to take place on December 18.
The elections will take place across federal Iraq and exclude the provinces of the Kurdistan Region.
