Kurdistan Region will adopt manual vote counting in September elections: IHERC

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Region’s Independent High Elections and Referendum Commission (IHERC) has revealed it will adopt manual vote counting in the upcoming parliamentary elections.

Earlier this month, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) announced that elections would take place on Sep. 30, 2018.

During a press conference on Thursday, IHERC spokesperson Sherwan Zirar said Kurdistan would not use the electronic voting system adopted in the recent Iraqi elections, opting for a manual count of votes instead.

“The counting of the votes in the Kurdistan parliamentary elections will not be electronically, but manually as agreed by members of the Commission,” he stated.

Following the May 12 Iraqi elections, several parties alleged fraud and complained that the electronic ballot devices were tampered with and unreliable.

“The Board of Commissioners decided not to resort to electronic screening in order to preserve the public interest in the region,” Zirar added.

He noted that the Commission decided on the manual counting to prevent any actions that could contribute to the rigging or manipulation of elections results.

“Through a manual vote count, the IHERC will take all measures to prevent fraud,” the spokesperson affirmed.

On Monday, five parties from the Kurdistan Region—the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU), Gorran (Change) Movement, Kurdistan Islamic Group (Komal), Coalition for Democracy and Justice (CDJ), and the Islamic Movement—sent a letter to the IHERC which included a list of demands for the Sep. 30 polls.

The signatories of the letter asked that the newly-introduced electronic ballot-casting system is not used in the Kurdistan elections, describing the May 12 polls as “the worst election in the history of the new Iraq and Kurdistan.”