Weekly Statement
* The Board of Commissioners (BoC) accredited on the numbers of polling centers and final stations for governorates that are not organized in a region.
* The Chairman of the Board of Commissioners and his Deputy provide the Prime Minister with an explanation of the preparations of the Commission for the upcoming local elections, and the financial needs necessary to conduct the of the Irai- Kurdistan Region Parliament elections.
* The Supreme Security Committee for Elections holds its periodic meeting to discuss and clarify the technical and administrative preparations necessary to maintain the security of the upcoming electoral process.
* The Committee of International Observers sends (93) invitations to international organizations, bodies and diplomatic missions.
* More than one million identification Card for electoral observers.
Weekly Statement
The Chairman and members of the Board of Commissioners of the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) held their regular session on 01/10/2023 and the special session on the (2nd and 4th of October 2023) to discuss several decisions on the agenda, including:- the accreditation of numbers of polling stations and its final stations except for the governorates of the Kurdistan region, instructing the electoral offices in the governorates of the Kurdistan region to stop the biometric registration process until further notice, accrediting the printouts that will be used in polling stations and auditing on days of Special and Public voting.
The (BoC) during its sessions, accredited on the procedures for voting, sorting and counting for the Non-Reginal governorates councils’ elections 2023, and other decisions regulating the process of auditing the names of candidates and their data with the legal verification bodies, as well as the Council’s decision to amend one of the articles of the Candidate Registration and Certification regulation No. (7) of 2023 to be as follows:- “He should be of good conduct and behavior not convicted of a felony or misdemeanor involving moral turpitude, including administrative and financial corruption, by a final court ruling, whether it is covered by amnesty or not), this amendment under the decision of the Federal Court.
In the context of follow-up and continuous governmental support, His Excellency the Prime Minister, Mr. (Muhammad Shia Al-Sudani), met with the Chairman of the Board of Commissioners, Judge (Omar Ahmed Mohammed) and his deputy, Judge (Fayyad Yassin Hussein), where they gave a comprehensive explanation of the procedures implemented within the operational schedule for holding the 2023 provincial council elections, and the financial needs necessary to conduct the process of electing the parliament of the Iraqi-Kurdistan Region in February of the next year 2024. H.E. the Prime Minister, Mr. (Muhammad Shia Al-Sudani) directed the Ministry of Finance to release the necessary allocations and facilitate the payment of financial rewards to polling staff. The Ministry of Education and other official government agencies cooperate with (IHEC) to overcome obstacles that may face its work.
On the security level, the Supreme Security Committee for Elections held its periodic meeting in the presence of a member of the Board of Commissioners, Judge (Amer Musa Al-Husseini), the (CEO) Chief Executive Officer’s assistant for Technical Affairs Mr. (Muhannad Fadhel Abbas) where a summary of the technical and administrative preparations submitted to preserve the security of the upcoming electoral process, and the mechanisms of special voting using the biometric cards, as well as the deployment data of the military contingents, and securing the polling stations on the days of special and general voting.
On the technical level, after the end of the analysis, auditing, publication and distribution of voters registered exclusively for public voting in the elections of provincial councils not in the region, (7166) polling centers and (35560) polling stations were accredited on, in addition to start printing forms of ballot papers for public and private voting, and (1,172,177) biometric cards. As for the process of electing the Kurdistan Regional Parliament, the total number of registered voters and voters who updated their data reached (2,742,216) individuals out of (3,641,566) voters in the governorates of the region.
In applying of the standards of integrity and transparency in electoral work, the International Observers Committee, headed by Judge Dr. Fattah Muhammad Hussein, invited (93) international organizations, bodies and diplomatic missions, and issuing (6000) identification cards to be accredited for with international media reporters in the national office exclusively, while (1,106,000) identification cards were prepared, distributed to the electoral governorate offices, to accredit media professionals, local observers and agents of political parties.
Hence (IHEC) invites local electoral observers to review the provincial electoral to be accreditation to observe the upcoming electoral process.