Iran Press/ Middle East: Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission announced that the doors of the polling stations for the second round of the 5th parliamentary elections in the Iraqi capital and various parts of the country, including the Kurdistan region, opened to voters from 7 am today (Baghdad time).
Announcing the opening of polling stations to voters, the National Iraqi News Agency stated that ballot boxes were ready to collect the votes of more than 24 million eligible Iraqi citizens to choose 329 MPs from 3,243 candidates, including 981 women in 83 constituencies.
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According to Independent High Electoral Commission, the preliminary results of the elections are expected to be announced 24 hours after the end of the voting, but the announcement of the official results will take ten days.
The Independent High Electoral Commission has previously announced the participation of 21 political coalitions and 167 parties, of which 58 parties are included in the coalitions.
The first round of Iraqi elections was held on Friday, October 8th, with Iraqi security forces, refugees, and prisoners casting their ballots. This was done to ensure that the security forces only provide security for the polling stations on election day.
The difference between the current Iraqi elections and the previous ones is that Iraqis living abroad will not participate in this round of elections.
Another difference is related to constituencies. Under the new Election Law No. 9 passed in 2020, Iraq is divided into 83 constituencies instead of the 18 constituencies in previous elections, and voters will vote directly for their preferred candidate to win a parliamentary seat if they reach the quorum. Baghdad, the capital of Iraq with the largest population, has 17 constituencies.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kazemi was one of the first Iraqi officials to vote in the elections.
Also, Iraqi President Barham Saleh, former Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi, former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Ammar al-Hakim, and Muqtada al-Sadr have so far cast their ballots.
As of 7 am today, the doors of polling stations in the Iraqi Kurdistan region are open to voters, like in other parts of the country.
The President of the Kurdistan Region, Nechirvan Barzani, and the region's Prime Minister, Masrour Barzani, were among the first Kurdish officials to vote.
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