Kurdistan commission calls on voters to register before it's too late

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – With the deadline for voter registration looming, the Kurdistan Region's Independent High Electoral and Referendum Commission (IHERC) is stepping up calls for residents to complete the process to be able to participate in September's regional election.

IHERC set up the process to authenticate voters' information and minimize potential fraud. Widespread claims of fraud have plagued Iraq's May 12 national election, including in the Kurdistan Region. The final results are still not clear, nearly three months later.

“There was an issue with my name in the list of voters, and this is why I came here so that I would be able to be sure that I can vote this election,” Erbil resident Rasul Hussein told Kurdistan 24 on Wednesday at a registration center in his city.

The process began on July 11 and is set to close on Aug. 11, but according to information obtained by Kurdistan 24, only 67,000 out of 3.12 million potential voters have enrolled.

IHERC has criticized various political parties for their lack of presence at the centers and of failing to encourage potential voters to take part.

"They have instead turned to Mullahs and imams in Mosques to relay the message to citizens," said Aram Najmaddin, Director of the IHERC office in Erbil, to Kurdistan 24.

To this end, Kawa Gardi, an official in the election office of Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) asks various individuals who could be unable to vote "to verify their names at the centers: those over the age of 90, those who are not registered in any ballot-casting station, and those who have no food ration card (a necessary document for voting)."

IHERC has also suggested that the deadline should be extended for an additional ten days.

Editing by John J. Catherine