The SRSG briefs leaders of political blocs on elections preparations

"The technical preparations are well on track to have elections on the 31 January with election materials from China, India, United Kingdom and Turkey already in Iraq secured at the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) warehouses", said Mr. De Mistura, adding that "over 20 million ballot papers will be delivered during the coming week". The SRSG emphasized that special security features will be used to make it extremely difficult to duplicate the ballots. Additional procedures have also been put in place to ensure that multiple voting and attempts to manipulate the polling are minimized. The SRSG stressed that for the first time the voter list will be printed to the polling station level, which means that a voter will appear only once on the voter list in one polling station in the whole of Iraq. He also stated that "Voters will be inked on their finger to show they have voted", and that special stamp will be used to ensure that only ballots issued by the IHEC will be counted. The SRSG called on the political bloc leaders to inform their party members of the polling procedures and to accredit agents to observe polling and counting as well as the transportation of materials to and from IHEC warehouses.   

The SRSG outlined that special voting will take place on 28 January, across Iraq in over 530 special polling stations for military, police, detainees and hospitalized voters to cast their ballots. He added "Additional measures to check the voter lists will be used in these cases to ensure there is no multiple voting”. 

IHEC Commissioner Hamdia Obeid Al-Hussaini presented the mechanism that will be used to allocate seats to winning lists. She indicated that women on winning lists of three candidates or more will be allocated seats according to the Election Law, on the basis of the most voted candidates within the lists, and one woman in every three winning candidates. The Commissioner said “The IHEC continues to follow international best practice in its election preparations, and has been working closely with Iraqi security forces to ensure a safe and secure Election Day”, adding that “efforts are being made to make access to polling far easier than before with almost 42,000 polling stations opening across the country on 31 January”.

Voters are encouraged to locate their polling station ahead of Election Day by visiting their local IHEC office, their food ration centre, calling free of charge the IHEC call Centre on 7777, or by entering their data on a special page on the IHEC website at www.ihec.iq.