Early voter turnout for Iraq’s security forces reaches 78 percent: Commission

Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) on Thursday announced early voter turnout for Iraqi forces across the country stood at roughly 78 percent.

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) on Thursday announced early voter turnout for Iraqi forces across the country stood at roughly 78 percent.

Nearly 7,000 candidates are competing to fill 328 seats in the Iraqi Parliament on May 12 elections. It is the first election held in the country since the defeat of the Islamic State (IS) late last year.

Riyadh Badran, the administrative head of the IHEC, revealed that 703,264 Iraqi forces had cast their votes on Thursday. There are over 900,000 troops eligible to vote in these elections.

Badran added that 7,691 observers were hired to oversee the election process.

Turnout for early voting in Erbil Province for the Kurdistan Region’s security forces was 84 percent. Out of the eligible 93,571 members of the security apparatus, 78,186 of them cast their ballots, Erbil’s IHEC office told Kurdistan 24 on Thursday.

In Sulaimani Province, the turnout was relatively low - 67 percent - head of Sulaimani’s IHEC office, Hawre Tofiq, told Kurdistan 24.

According to a Kurdistan 24 correspondent, voter turnout in Duhok was also high, with 83 percent making their way to the polls.

Voting began at 7:00 am, local time, with polling stations closing at 6:00 pm.

In Kirkuk Province, turnout stood at 66 percent. With 36,544 eligible members, 22,548 of them cast their vote on Thursday, IHEC told Kurdistan 24.

In the Kurdistan Region alone, nearly 250,000 members of the security and armed forces registered to vote.

Iraqis abroad were also able to cast their ballot on Thursday, and early voting continues until the end of the day on Friday. 

Some 1,800 Iraqis in the Netherlands have already voted, with 750 more in Belgium and 225 in France casting their ballot on Thursday, according to data Kurdistan 24 Correspondent in Europe, Barzan Hassan, received from the European IHEC office.

Editing by Nadia Riva