Iraq
An Iraqi voter has her biometric voting card checked with her fingerprint upon arriving at a poll station in al-Hamdaniyah, some 30 kilometers from Mosul, on May 12th, 2018. File photo: Zaid al-Obeidi/ AFP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Iraq’s electoral commission on Sunday called for the postponement of parliamentary elections scheduled for June to October 16 in a letter sent to the Prime Minister’s office, published on state media, also asking for an extension to the registration period.
Iraq’s High Electoral Commission (IHEC) proposed the change of date “given the end of the specified period for the registration of political alliances and the small number of alliances registered in the Department of Parties Affairs and Political Organizations,” reads the letter to Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Kadhimi, issued by chairman of the board of Commissioners Jalil Khalaf.
The commission added that in order to complete all “technical preparations” and to clear the way for the United Nations and international observers to achieve transparency, “the extension of the period of registration of alliances and the consequent extension of the period of registration of candidates” is required.
IHEC spokesperson Jumana Alghalai told Rudaw English on Friday that holding elections in June may not be realistic. Only a fraction of eligible voters have updated their electoral records and most of the political entities have not registered yet, she said a day ahead of a registration deadline.
Members of Iraq’s parliament have also expressed doubt that Iraq’s early elections, set for June 6, 2021, will take place on time.
Qasim Fahdawi, the country’s former electricity minister and an MP from the Iraqi Front, a Sunni party in the Iraqi parliament, accused politicians’ part of larger blocs of deception in their talk of an election in the near future.
“There haven’t been any preparations for the election set for June. Unfortunately, nobody is talking about it frankly. All the parties are lying,” Fahdawi told Rudaw’s Halkawt Aziz on Saturday.
The electoral commission said in August it would be ready to hold early elections in June provided the government and parliament meet certain demands, including passing a new electoral law and allocating a budget for the vote.
Early elections were one of the demands of protests that spread across central and southern Iraq in October 2019. Kadhimi asked IHEC in November 2020 to take “all necessary measures” to ensure the elections will be held as scheduled, and should “continuously work to guarantee a successful election.”
Iraqi President Barham Salih in November officially signed electoral reforms into law, dividing provinces into smaller voting constituencies for the 2021 election.
Early elections have wide support among the political parties. All parties in parliament agree that early elections should be held this year, Sabah Talubi, a member of the Sairoon Alliance – the parliament’s biggest political bloc, led by Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr – told state media on January 8.
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