Iraq’s Parliament today voted in favour of holding local elections in conjunction with parliamentary polls slated for April next year.
“A majority of MPs voted today to conduct local elections – initially slated for September – at the same time as next April’s parliamentary polls,” Abbas Al-Bayati, an MP for Iraq’s Shia National Alliance bloc, told the Anadolu Agency.
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According to Al-Bayati, the decision was based on a proposal submitted earlier by Parliament’s legal committee.
Before today’s decision, several Iraqi political parties had called to postpone scheduled local polls with a view to reducing high administrative costs associated with conducting elections.