weekly Statement
• The Board of Commissioners (BoC) is discussing topics of the agenda.
• The (BoC) is following up the work of electoral offices and registration centres (RC).
• IHEC has begun its administrative procedures to recruit (3193) operational contract-employees; as staff members.
• The (BoC)… determined efforts to transform electoral contract-employees into operational ones.
weekly Statement
The Chairman and members of the Board of Commissioners of the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) held their regular periodic session No. (1) on the (4th of January 2023); to discuss many subjects on their agenda, the most important of which is discussing the role of the Women’s Empowerment Team in IHEC through the implementation of the annual plan, including the implementation of activities held at the national level, with the aim of improving women’s participation in political life and strengthening their role in society, in addition to discussing some administrative and technical aspects organizing the work of the Commission .
The Vice-President of the (BoC), Judge (Omar Muhammad) and the Chief Executive Offocer (CEO), Judge (Amer Al-Husseini), chaired a meeting with general managers and directors of the Governors Electoral Offices (GEOs) at the Commission’s headquarters, in order to discuss number of technical, administrative and financial requirements and follow up work on the mechanism of registration centres and roving teams.
within the continuous follow-up work of the registration centers affiliated to GEOs, two members of the Board of Commissioners, Judge (Daham Akram Omar) and Judge (Ali Rashid Muhammad), chaired two online meetings with the directors of the centers of the first constituency of Wasit and Dohuk electoral offices, in the presence of the Secretary-General of the Board of Commissioners and the technical assistant of the CEO, and the directors of the relevant departments; to discuss the outcome of the efforts of the registration center’s employees and their roving teams in the process of both, distributing the electoral card, and the biometric voter’s registration. The two commissioners praised the Centers’ proposals, including create evening shifts for roving teams to increase the number of voters who are unable to register their data during their official work hours.
Therefore, IHEC is working on improving the public and private voter register, to maintain its accuracy and integrity through both, keeping on the biometric registration project, and coordination with the Ministries of Defence and Interior; to provide the Commission with the names of their employees who either still in military service, or transformed to the civil service’s staff; In order to transfer their data from the private register to the public register. In addition to coordinating with the Ministries of Health and Trade regarding the data of the Deceased Persons’ Data in order to remove it from the voter registration. Also coordinating with the Ministry of Immigration and immigrants concerning the data of IDPs.
In accordance with the strategic vision of the Board of Commissioners in keeping on improving the Commission’s staff members; the Training and Development’s Department works on implementing training programs that have been previously prepared to hold training workshops in all GEOs to build the capabilities of employees and enriching them with experience, to manage the upcoming electoral events in a good manner.
Under the previous approval of the Board of Commissioners, the destruction committee, proceeded to destroy the (short-termed) electoral cards that had been withdrawn from their owners on polling day, after they were classified and counted in coordination with the GEOs.
In the context of Biometric Registration, IHEC is working through its electoral offices on sending roving teams to the institutions and departments of the state to contribute in raising rates of voter registration and biometric cards’ distributing. So IHEC has registered (524.451) voter, and distributed (647.026) Biometric Cards. It distributed (116.940) Biometric Cards for public voting, and (483,167) cards for special voting to be distributed to the security services and the armed forces. While (46,919) cards were distributed for the IDPs.
For the interested in electoral affairs, they could see the cumulative operational situation of both, the biometric registration, and distribution processes via visiting the official website of IHEC (https://ihec.iq/biometric-registration/ ).
Under the direction and follow-up of the Chairman of the Board of Commissioners, Judge (Jalil Adnan Khalaf), and via the Department of Information and Mass Communication, IHEC has issued its first edition of the electronic monthly magazine, entitled “The Electoral Culture” which is concerned with electoral education, which arises within the framework of indirect contact with the public to Broadening the electoral knowledge base of the voter. It could be viewed via visiting the link available on the official website https://ihec.iq/newspaper/.
On the other hand, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI’ experts; provided digital information support by holding periodic meetings with the Department of Operations and Information Technology and its divisions in all GEOs, that are aiming to develop work by using innovative technologies found by technology, to provide distinguished electoral services.
After strenuous endeavours, great and fruitful efforts to hire the operational contract-employees; IHEC proceeds its administrative procedures, and signing the administrative orders which stipulate the transformation of (3193) operational contract-employees to be permanent staff members on the condition that they should meet the conditions.
The spokesperson
8th January,2023