Holding general elections of Iraqi provincial councils with the participation of political figures

According to Fars News Agency International Group, Iraq’s official news agency (WAA), today (Monday, December 18), from the beginning of voting for the provincial council elections in all Iraqi provinces (except the Kurdistan Region provinces) ) informed.

Last Saturday (December 16), the first stage of this election was held with a special vote for the security and military forces of Iraq, and according to the announcement of the Independent High Commissioner of Elections, the participation rate was 67%.

This morning, some leading political figures of Iraq, including Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani, General Secretary of Esaib Ahlul Haq, Qais Al Khazali, former Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, Seyyed Ammar Al Hakim, head of the Hekmat Melli, “Mohammed Al-Halbusi”, the former speaker of the parliament, “Nuri Al-Maliki”, the former prime minister, and the head of the “Doleh al-Qanun” coalition went to the polls.

Iraqi people went to the polls for the first time since 2013 to participate in the provincial council elections. Before this, provincial council elections were held in Iraq in 2009. In 2018, it was supposed to be held at the same time as the parliamentary elections, but it was postponed many times.

These elections were held in 15 of the 18 provinces of Iraq and 3 provinces of the Kurdistan region of Iraq according to The law of the federal government of this country was not included in this election.

According to the constitution of Iraq, the provincial councils have wide powers, as far as they have the right to issue local laws, and like a small government, The affairs of the province and the responsibility of monitoring the health, transportation and education budgets are on them.

The upcoming elections will be held while one of the main demands of the October 2019 demonstrations, which was the resignation of the then government Iraq led, the dissolution of the provincial councils and the holding of elections, according to the protesting groups of the provincial councils, due to the non-holding of elections, they have suffered massive corruption.

The Prime Minister of Iraq, today, after voting The fund thanked the media for covering the news of the elections and emphasized that the elections are an important legal right and the provincial councils are considered as important pillars of the government’s executive body and it asks the people to have an effective presence in the current elections.

He also thanked the security agencies of the country for ensuring the security of the elections, as well as the Independent High Commissioner of Elections.

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