A United Nations official said on Tuesday that the technical preparations for holding the Iraqi parliamentary elections scheduled for next Sunday are “on the right track.”
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This came in a press conference held by the head of the United Nations mission in Iraq, “UNAMI”, Jenin Plasschaert, at the headquarters of the international organization in the capital, Baghdad.
“The technical aspects of the electoral process are on track,” Plasschaert added.
Our broad UN electoral presence is fully spread out, covering technical assistance and monitoring as well as communications and outreach.”
It explained that about 900 international and local experts and support staff are contributing to electoral efforts nationwide.
“Our electoral assistance focuses on what is necessary for the elections, which is their credibility,” the UN official added.
It is scheduled that members of the various security forces in the country, in addition to detainees in prisons and displaced persons inside the country.
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This is done by voting at the polling stations next Friday on an exceptional basis, that is, two days before the election date.
And last Sunday, Iraqi President Barham Salih announced that his country’s authorities had taken exceptional measures to prevent electoral fraud.
In addition to repeated promises from the government to conduct a democratic process in which security and integrity prevail.
However, there is an atmosphere of uncertainty for many in the country due to widespread corruption and the spread of powerful armed factions, in addition to the fear of attacks by the terrorist organization “ISIS” during the voting process.
According to figures from the Electoral Commission on July 31, there are 3,249 candidates representing 21 coalitions and 109 parties.
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Along with independents, they will contest the elections to win 329 seats in the Iraqi parliament.
About 24 million people are entitled to vote in general out of about 40 million people (the country’s population), according to official figures.
The current parliamentary session was supposed to end in 2022, but the political parties decided to hold early elections after widespread protests overthrew the previous government headed by Adel Abdul-Mahdi in late 2019, then gave confidence to a new government headed by Mustafa Al-Kazemi in May 2020 to manage the transitional phase.
