Weekly Statement
• The Board of Commissioners (BoC) discusses the rights of voters in its eleventh session.
• The Chairman of the Board of Commissioners follows up the technical work in departments and divisions.
• The (CEO) directs to provide the requirements for the work of registration centers.
• IHEC is preparing the requirements for the next phase, in coordination with (IFES ) and (UNAMI).
Weekly Statement
The Chairman and members of the Board of Commissioners of the Independent High Electoral Commission in Iraq (IHEC) held their eleventh session on (5/04/2023); to discuss several of decisions in the agenda , one of which it awarded formation permit for the political parties who want to register. The board also discussed the rights of voters, including IDPs, and those with disabilities, to set mechanisms that facilitate the procedures of registering them biometrically. Also it discussed the methods to guarantee the retirement rights for operational contract-staff who have reached the pension age.
In a related context, the committee of (coordination with Stakeholders), chaired by the Secretary-General of the Board of Commissioners to build bridges of communication and joint action, in this meeting, the two judges, the Chairman of the Board of Commissioners and his deputy, discussed the procedural facilities that IHEC would provide to representatives of political parties and organizations and civil society organizations interested in electoral affairs; for the success of their tasks.
On the other hand, and based on the successive meetings held by the Judge, Chairman of the Board of Commissioners, with the managers of the governorate electoral offices (GEOs) and the technical divisions; for work-follow up and identifying the electoral possibilities and the needs for the upcoming elections; the judge, Chairman of the Board of Commissioners, discussed with the (supreme Coordination Commission between non-regional organized governorates ), chaired by the Prime Minister; the most important requirements of the (GEOs) ; In preparation for holding the elections of non-regional organized governorates, which will be scheduled to be conducted at the end of this year, after all the necessary requirements are met.
In the context of work follow-up, both, the Chairman of the Board of Commissioners and the chief executive officer (CEO) are following up the work of the technical divisions in the Operations and Information Technology Department, as they had begun preparing a draft for the procedures’ special system for updating the voter register and its training pyramid. As well as starting to design a program for transformation and preparation of electoral materials, besides two registration programs to register Political parties and organizations and candidates to participate in the elections.
Information and Mass Communication Department is working on preparing a draft system and instructions for registration and accreditation of candidates and forms of registration.
In a related matter, the judge, the (CEO), has directed, through his technical assistant, to the necessity of providing an electoral constituency coordinator in the registration centers. To provide the necessary needs for the (RCs) as soon as possible; for the maintenance of the electoral work fluency.
In line with the requirements of this stage, IHEC is coordinating with the United Nations Assistance Mission (UNAMI) and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES); to implement the Training and Development Department’s plan for conducting the (election of non-organized governorates). While the Operations and Information Technology Department has started implementing Technical workshops for the Commission’s staff related to electoral systems, updating and polling procedures.
The employees of the GEOs and their registration centers, are working hard to focus on preparing for the next stage by coordinating with the Stakeholders of official and non-official institutions in educating voters on the importance of participating in the democratic process by urging them to complete the biometric registration process and receive their electoral biometric voter cards as they were previously registered. So these efforts resulted in the registration of (744,001) voters, while the registration centers distributed (987,279) biometric cards, classified as (541,338) cards for public voting, and (911,597) cards for private voting for members of security devices and armed forces. Also (827.50) voters cards were distributed for the IDPs in the presence of a number of local observers and agents of political parties.
Those interested in the electoral issue, they could view the (cumulative operational situation) via visiting the official website of (IHEC) https://ihec.iq/biometric-registration / .