Iraq Launches Special Parliamentary Elections for Specific Groups
According to the English section of webangah News Agency, citing Mehr News Agency and Iraqi media, polling stations have opened for security personnel and staff assigned to protect election centers during the general parliamentary elections on November 11. Military members, prisoners, and hospital patients are also casting their votes ahead of the main election day.
The voting period for these groups will conclude this evening.The official electoral silence that began yesterday morning will remain in effect until the general elections take place on Tuesday, November 11.
Out of a total population of 46 million Iraqis, approximately 29 million are eligible to vote for representatives in the new parliament. However,around 7 million people are excluded due to missing voter cards or outdated registration data.
Jumana Al-ghallai, spokesperson for Iraq’s Election Commission, announced that 8,703 polling centers are prepared to receive over 21 million voters. A total of 7,754 candidates-including 2,250 women-are competing for 329 parliamentary seats.Of these seats,83 are reserved specifically for women. The seats are distributed across eighteen constituencies; each province forms an self-reliant constituency.Election commission sources report that more than 400 political parties will participate in the vote alongside nearly 140 political coalitions.
As the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, Iraq has held five rounds of parliamentary elections-the first in 2005 and most recently in October 2021. A single-constituency system per province was used during four previous cycles but was replaced by multiple constituencies at last year’s polls.In March this year (2023), Iraq’s parliament approved a third amendment to its electoral law reinstating the single-constituency system across all provinces.
