Iraq | Closing remarks by IHEC BoC Chairman at IHEC and UNAMI lessons learned workshop

IHEC and UNAMI Lessons Learned workshop [27-30 March 2022]: Closing remarks by IHEC Chairman, Judge Jalil Adnan Khalaf Sulaymaniyah, 30 March 2022 - In conclusion of this workshop, I would like to say that after the success in conducting the 2021 Council of Representatives (CoR) elections, reviewing and evaluating the electoral process in all its aspects was a necessary step. This workshop on lessons learned from the electoral process is taking place in cooperation with UNAMI Office of Electoral Affairs (OEA) and the support that this office offered in all electoral stages had a big role in our meeting to discuss and deliberate on all stages that we conducted and that led to CoR elections. This workshop has tackled technical, administrative and financial aspects of the electoral process in light of the operational plan and timeline including the legal framework, complaints and appeals, operational planning, public outreach, voter registration, procedures and trainings, contracts and procurement, logistical services, coordination and field support, security coordination, data management, results announcement and finally women participation in elections. Despite IHEC’s big success, the electoral process and its associated difficulties require improvements through analyzing strengths and weaknesses and by providing recommendations to promote strength points and address weaknesses for the upcoming electoral processes. The main reason behind this big attention to this workshop and attendance of all Board of Commissioners (BoC) and OEA is that IHEC needs continued support from UNAMI OEA and from all its experts and specialized teams to advise on technical aspects of the electoral process in addition to support from electoral partners, international organizations, CSOs and decision makers. IHEC will work hard to implement the recommendations resulting from this workshop to lessen the challenges that IHEC faced during the execution of this electoral process.

A UNAMI Public Information Office (PIO) production Video producer: Sarmad Al-Safy

With thanks to the UNAMI Office of Electoral Assistance and the Independent High Electoral Commission