Early voting for Iraqi election begins for military and diaspora

2.43pm

Polling machines cause delays across Kurdistan Region 

Rudaw’s Rangin Sharo in Erbil said voting at Maamun Dabbagh polling station was delayed by over an hour due to technical issues with the voting machines. Polls were supposed to open at 7am, but were delayed until 8:05am.

The voting process in some stations in Sulaimani was also delayed by 30 minutes as the voting machines were set up, according to Rudaw’s Arkan Ali in Sulaimani.

Voting was also delayed by an hour in Soran, according to Rudaw’s Bakhtyar Qadir.

“The process is proceeding very slowly. We have been here since 7 am, but voting started at 8am. I was the second person who voted. The machine reading the biometric card takes time to do its job. In some cases, you need to reinsert the card a few times to read it. The same is the case with the fingerprint machine,” a voter from Soran told Rudaw.

“The process is very slow. We were 20 people, and it took us an hour and a quarter to vote,” another voter in Kalar told Rudaw.

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10.40am

Technical faults delay Baghdad voting 

Voting devices in two Baghdad polling stations have reportedly broken down. 

The fault with the fingerprint reading devices, introduced to help stop election fraud, has caused crowds of early voters to form outside the polling stations. 

Some voters tired of waiting have left without casting their ballot, according to Rudaw’s Halkawt Aziz in Baghdad.

According to the election commission, Iraq has purchased 59,800 electronic devices from a Korean company for $100 million.

Iraqi soldiers vote in Baghdad on May 10. Photo: Rudaw

The Iraqi parliament’s security and defense committee warned earlier this week it has received intelligence suggesting some political parties are trying to sabotage voting machines ahead of the May 12 election so that electronic voting is scrapped and replaced with the manual system.

The committee said these parties will sabotage the devices an hour before polling stations open so that the commission will have to count votes by hand. It called on the election commission and security forces to secure the devices.

Iraq’s election commission says the switch to electronic voting and tallying of votes leaves no room for fraud. 

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9.20am

Polls open for diaspora 

Voting has also started abroad for the Kurdish and Iraqi diaspora.

Almost 900,000 people are eligible to vote abroad. Polling stations have opened in 21 countries, according to the Iraqi electoral commission, including Jordan, Turkey, Iran, United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Egypt, Denmark, Holland, the UK, Germany, Canada, the USA, Sweden, Australia, Norway, Austria, Finland, Belgium, and New Zealand.

Rizgar Hamamihyadin, deputy president of high council of electoral commission of Iraq, told Rudaw the diaspora is able to vote on May 10 and 11.

The rest of the population will go to the polls on May 12.

One of seven polling stations opened in Germany on May 10. Photo: Rudaw

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9.00am

Security forces cast their ballots 

Security forces and citizens in the diaspora who have special early voting ballot status have begun casting their votes in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq for the Iraqi parliamentary election. Polls are open until 5pm. 

Members of the security forces queue to vote in Erbil. Photo: Rudaw

Of these, there are 114,172 early voters in Erbil, who will vote in 45 voting stations. Peshmerga and Asayish (security forces) will vote in these centers.