1.5 million Iraqis will not be able vote in upcoming elections: Official

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A member of the Iraqi Commission for Human Rights said on Sunday that 1.5 million citizens will not be able to participate in the upcoming federal elections.

Commission member Fadhil al-Gharawi claimed in a statement that 1.5 million Iraqis born between 2001 and 2003 will not be able to cast a vote "because their names are not in the voter registery yet and they did not get their biometric or temporary cards."

The official affirmed, "the government must protect" the constitutional right to vote and called on the federal electoral commission to "take urgent measures" to that effect.

Early elections were among the leading demands of anti-government protests in late 2019 that ultimately resulted in former prime minister Adil Abdul Mahdi’s resignation. Mustafa al-Kadhimi replaced Abdul Mahdi in May 2020, after months of political jockeying in the legislature.

The Iraqi Council of Ministers voted unanimously during its session held on January 19th, to postpone its upcoming election this year from early June to the newly-scheduled date of Oct. 10.

Iraqi Prime Minister previously stated that the upcoming elections would be fair, carried out under significant international supervision, and free of undue influence from political parties and armed militias.