UNAMI congratulates IHEC on starting ballot printing for upcoming elections
21 January 2010
Baghdad -Thursday, 21 January 2010 - The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) extends its warm congratulations to the Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) for starting the ballot printing process for the upcoming parliamentary elections. Overall, more than 26 million ballots of 19 different types will be printed and distributed to approximately 50,000 polling stations which will be established by the IHEC to accommodate regular voting, special needs and absentee voting including the police, the military, detainees and hospital workers, as well as out-of-country voting (OCV).
The Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General for Iraq (SRSG) Ad Melkert said, “We praise the Electoral Commission’s efforts to move forward with the operational timeline despite considerable challenges along the way.” He reiterated that UNAMI continues to support the IHEC in its work and is confident that all preparations will be in place and ballots are ready for the election day on March 7, as well as the Special Voting starting three days before that date.
He also added, “UNAMI closely monitors the progress of implementing the electoral timeline. The recent lottery conducted by the IHEC for selecting of up to 300,000 polling staff for the upcoming elections demonstrated transparency and integrity in the selection and recruitment process and IHEC’s commendable efforts to keep the public and the media well informed. It is encouraging to see that the nation-wide training process has begun according to plan.”
Mr. Melkert noted that with UNAMI’s support, the IHEC has also started the Out-of-Country Voting programme (OCV) dedicated headquarters in Erbil, initiating the deployment of needed office managers. Out of Country Voting allows Iraqis abroad to exercise their right to elect their representatives to the parliament and UNAMI is dispatching electoral advisers to each of the countries selected for OCV.
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