Iraqi election results to be announced within 48 hours of polls closing: IHEC

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Result for the 2018 Iraqi parliamentary elections will be announced no later than 48 hours after voting ends, Hazim al-Ridini, a member of Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission assured on Saturday.

Once polling stations shut down Saturday evening, voter turnout and other details will be made public as soon as possible, al-Ridini told Iraqi reporters in Baghdad.

Voting across Iraq and the Kurdistan Region began at 7:00 am local time on Saturday after four weeks of campaigning as thousands of candidates compete in the country’s first election since the defeat of the Islamic State (IS).

Polling stations will remain open until 6:00 pm, with new biometric voting machines automatically shutting off at that time, the IHEC said.

More than 24 million Iraqis are eligible to vote in the elections, the fourth national election since the fall of Saddam Hussein and his dictatorial regime in 2003. Three million people are eligible to vote in the Kurdistan Region.

The final results for the election will likely be announced within two days of the vote, unlike previous elections which would take up to a few weeks before results were made public. 

It is also the first time Iraq uses an electronic system to vote.

The electronic system was implemented with the hopes it would help prevent fraud, but some have warned that the new electronic devices would make it easier to tamper with votes.

Editing by Nadia Riva