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Iraq
An Iraqi woman holds up an ink-stained finger after voting in the 2018 parliamentary elections in Baghdad. File photo: AFP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — More than 24 million people, including over 120,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), have registered to vote in the upcoming elections in October, the Independent High Electoral Commission said on Monday.
In an interview broadcast on Monday, commission spokesperson Jumana al-Ghalai told Rudaw that the commission has registered more than 120,000 IDPs to vote after forming a committee which visited displacement camps and recorded the number of eligible voters there.
She also discussed voter registration for Iraqis abroad.
"The Electoral Commission coordinated its work through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with 76 foreign embassies and international organizations.”
Voters' biometric cards will be rendered invalid and taken immediately after voting to crack down on fraud, the commission said on Sunday.
Iraqi President Barham Salih has recently sent recommendations to the commission regarding the election, including the suggestion to announce results within 24 hours of the closing of polls via a live broadcast.
Voter cards that do not include biometric data should also not be used, Salih proposed.
Early elections were one of the key demands of protesters who began demonstrating across central and southern Iraq in October 2019. Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi announced elections would be held in June, but they were later postponed to October.
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