Weekly Statement
* The board of Commissioners (BoC) approves the schedule of the upcoming Governorates council elections.
* The board of Commissioners is discussing ways to cooperate with the United Nations mission for Iraq (UNAMI) .
* The Council of ministers approves the requirements for the work of (IHEC) to conduct local council elections.
* The two members of the (BoC), Dr. Al-Jabri and Judge Al-Hussaini made inspection visits to the Governorates electoral offices.
Weekly Statement
With the increasing pace of work to hold the 2023 Governorates’ Council Elections; the chairman of the board of Commissioners and its members at the Independent High Electoral Commission; held their eighteenth meeting on the 6th /June/2023; to approve the operational schedule, voting instructions, sorting and counting according to the articles of the third amendment of the law of elections of the House of Representatives, governorates Councils and districts No. 12 of 2018 and its paragraphs. The council also held an extraordinary meeting on 7/6/2013 to discuss the mechanism of printing the biometric card according to high technical specifications to ensure the security of voters’ data.
In support of the United Nations for the electoral process, the chairman of the board of Commissioners, the members, the chief executive officer, the deputy head of the United Nations mission, the head of the Electoral Assistance Team in Iraq and their accompanying delegation; met to discuss the basis of cooperation in providing them with technical support and advice in order to accomplish conducting the upcoming governorates council elections on the basis of integrity and transparency.
The board of Commissioners welcomed a delegation from the presidency of Kurdistan region to discuss the federal court’s decision on the unconstitutionality of extending the work of Kurdistan regional parliament and the file of parliamentary elections in the region. while the chairman of the board of Commissioners and members stressed on the full readiness of IHEC to cooperate with Kurdistan region to complete the parliament elections in the region successfully and transparently.
The Council of Ministers approved by its letter No. (26501) on 7/6/2023, the requirements needed for the work of IHEC in the implementation of local elections in many aspects of administrative, financial and technical work, including converting the electoral contract-employees into operational contracts; to support the implementation of the electoral process, as well as allowing IHEC to use the financial allotting and funding of 2023 for the reimbursement of the expenses of the elections’ activities , by considering them as budget funds of 2023.
Media and Communications Commission and the Iraqi Media Network carried out a free media campaigns to urge voters to register their data in addition to address ministries and bodies of the state to cooperate and coordinate the work with IHEC to serve the public interest.
On the other hand, the chief executive officer of the electoral administration, the (CEO) Judge Abbas al-Fatlawi, and his assistants for technical, and administrative and financial affairs; are following up the implementation of the operational timetable items, which includes the first stages of implementing the electoral process, including updating the voter register and registering political parties and alliances wishing to participate in elections to announce the start dates for them.
As part of field tours to check the readiness of the electoral governorate offices (GEOs) , judge ( Amer Musa Al-Husseini) , the member of the board of Commissioners, visited Erbil electoral office for the work flow in accordance with regulations and instructions approved for the upcoming local elections, as well as follow-up on the work of registration centers and the process of the distribution of voter cards and the biometric registration process and the readiness of registration center staff when starting the stage of updating the voter register. Judge Al-Husseini also inspected the work of the warehouses of Erbil elections’ office in terms of storing the electoral materials under preventive occupational safety procedures.
Following a field visit done by the member of the (BoC), Dr. Ahlam al-Jabri, to Wasit governorate electoral office; to specify the office’s preparations and needs in conducting local elections. Dr. (Al-Jabri) discussed with the governor of Wasit the role of the governorate in the success of the democratic process and the foundations of supporting the work of the electoral office.
The efforts of the staff of registration centers and mobile teams continue to register voters and distribute biometric cards to previously registered voters, which resulted in the registration of (944,771) voters, including (198,200) new birth voters of 2004, and (103,203) voters born in 2005. The number of distributed cards amounted to (1,224,268) biometric cards classified as (532,104) cards for public voting, and (639,993) for special voting concerning the security and armed forces. While (52,171) cards were distributed for IDPs and immigrants. The work is carried out in the presence of Agents of political parties and local observers.
For those interested in the electoral matter, they are able to see the cumulative operational situation of the biometric registration and distribution processes via visiting the following link on the official website of IHEC. (https://ihec.iq/biometric-registration/ ).
The electoral offices in the governorates are intensifying all their efforts in distributing the remaining biometric voters’ cards through coordination and cooperation with food-cards agents, Mokhtars, and representatives of the national security in the governorate; in order to provide the possible facilities in completing the distribution processes. as well as coordination with media outlets to urge voters to participate in the biometric registration and receive their biometric cards.