Weekly speech
The board of Commissioners (BoC) discusses in its fourth session organizing the work.
* The chairman of the board of commissioners follows up the work of the registration centers, and directs the department’s managers to follow up the work in units of the electoral offices.
* Under the chairmanship of the chief executive officer of the electoral management , the Supreme advisory committee discusses the work of IHEC in accordance with international standards.
* The operational committee discusses the mechanism of registration of voters residing outside their home governorates.
The chairman and members of the board of Commissioners (BoC) of the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) held their fourth regular session on 30/1/2023, in which they discussed the mechanism for organizing the work of the Department of parties and political organizations Affairs based on the Parties Act No. 36 of 2015, which obligated their work with neutral and integrity .
As to pursue the workflow of the voter registration centers, the chairman of the board of Commissioners, judge ( Jalil Adnan Khalaf) , chaired an online meeting with the managers of the registration centers of the First constituency of Diyala Governorate. The meeting held in the presence of Mr. Ali Faisal Daham, the secretary-general of the board, and Mr. Ali Saleh Jaafar, the financial and administrative assistant of the chief executive officer (CEO) , to identify their achievements in the success of the biometric registration project and the distribution of the Biometric Voters’ Cards, as well discussing facilities for mobile teams to reach voters ‘ places of residence in the most remote residential areas from the outskirts of the province; to register them biometrically, to guarantee their right in voting.
In a related matter concerning the work flow , Judge Jalil Adnan Khalaf, chairman of the board of commissioners, directed continuous communication with all electoral offices, as the internal audit and control department of IHEC, has held an online meeting with officials of the government electoral offices (GEOs ); to discuss the development of the work and consider reports that had been sent to the national office. Also the operations and Information Technology Department held a similar meeting with the competent units in the GEOs ; to discuss the developments of work related to the biometric registration project and the distribution of the voters’ cards.
In order to assess the performance of IHEC , the higher advisory committee, chaired by its deputy the (CEO) judge Abbas al-Fatlawi, to discuss the decisions of the board of Commissioners in applying international standards in accordance with constitutional and legal principles, as well as registering voters and how to create the appropriate atmosphere for them to casting cast their votes, in addition to registering candidates in accordance with electoral laws, for the purpose of developing work to guarantee the rights of voters and candidates to participate effectively in the democratic process.
At the technical level, the board of Commissioners approved the use of the program prepared by IHEC, to examine the electoral devices (results acceleration device P-COS, C-COS, verification devices , and V-SAT devices); to ensure their readiness in preparation for future electoral entitlements, as hierarchical training will be conducted through a technical committee headed by the technical assistant of the electoral administration Mr. Muhannad Fadel Abbas and the membership of a number of specialized staff members on the mechanisms of using the program by GEOs down to the registration centers affiliated to them.
To ensure the rights of voters to participate in the democratic process, the CEO’ technical assistant for Technical Affairs, who chaired the meeting of the operational committee in the presence of its technical staff members, to discuss the mechanism of registration voters residing outside their governorates, as well as discussing a mechanism for private voting’s of preserving their right to vote, by keeping their biometric voter’s card when they visit the registration centers to change their registration status from private to public.
About biometric registration project, GEOs continue to coordinate with government’s institutions and their directorates; to deploy mobile teams, as well as coordinating with civil society organizations to expand the electoral awareness base, as well as the mukhtars and ration card’s agents in the province; to follow up the registration process while continuing to publish explanatory posts on websites which explain the commission’s procedures in this regard and inviting previously registered voters to receive their electoral biometric voter’s cards through a number of social and local media platforms in governorates , as this resulted in the registration of (571,761) voters, while mobile teams and voter centers, had distributed ( 754,952) biometric cards. (183,800) cards for public voting, and(522,976) cards for private voting concerning personnel of security services and armed forces, while (48,176) cards were distributed for IDPs, in the presence of a number of local observers and agents of political parties.
For the interested in the electoral affairs, they can view the (cumulative operational situation) via visiting the official website of IHEC https://IHEC.IQ/biometric-registration.
IHEC had published the names of registration centers and their addresses; to facilitate the way for voters to reach centers near their residence, via the link available on the official website of the IHEC https://ihec.iq/find-your-polling-center /
At the level of national issues, IHEC has participated through its team of women’s empowerment, in the meeting called by the women’s empowerment department at the general secretariat of the Council of ministers to discuss the plan of the National Women’s team of (support energy and reduce emissions) to support the national initiative, which was launched recently in order to involve all governorates and categories of Citizens, employees and students in spreading the concepts of rationalizing energy and water consumption for the purpose of sustainability and preserving the environment.
The spokesperson
6th Feb. 2023