Iraq: Citizens abroad cannot vote in elections

An Iraqi woman updates her voter registration at the Independent High Electoral Commission Center in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah in the Dhi Qar province on January 12, 2021 [ASAAD NIAZI/AFP via Getty Images]

Iraq’s Independent High Election Commission has cancelled the participation of Iraqi citizens abroad in snap parliamentary elections, the Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported yesterday.

“The commission decided today [Tuesday] to cancel the elections for Iraqis abroad,” the commission’s official media spokesman, Jumana Al-Ghalai, told INA, after “the council held a series of intensive meetings to discuss the issue of parliamentary elections.”

This comes as a result of several technical, financial, and legal problems, the commission said, noting that the most difficult of which is that it had not completed the biometric registration of Iraqis abroad. There is now insufficient time to solve these problems, it said.

The coronavirus pandemic also hinders the ability of global embassies to hold elections, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

Early parliamentary elections are due to be held in Iraq in October. Iraqi law gives members of the diaspora the opportunity to cast their votes only using their biometric cards.

READ: Iraq invites 52 countries to monitor early parliamentary elections

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