The provincial elections will be held on Jan. 31. They will take place in one day in Baghdad and the other provinces,” said Qazim Al-Abudi, administrative director of the Iraq High Electoral Committee.
“The electoral campaign will start at the end of this month or at the beginning of next month and it will last for two months.”
BAGHDAD: Iraq will hold long-awaited provincial elections — seen by Washington as a key benchmark for achieving national reconciliation — on Jan. 31, a senior election official said yesterday.
“The provincial elections will be held on Jan. 31. They will take place in one day in Baghdad and the other provinces,” said Qazim Al-Abudi, administrative director of the Iraq High Electoral Committee.
“The electoral campaign will start at the end of this month or at the beginning of next month and it will last for two months.”
To date, 401 political parties or independent candidates have registered for the ballot, with 440 seats up for grabs nationwide in the provincial councils.
The poll laws stipulate that those that receive the biggest number of votes will be elected, regardless of their party affiliation.
Originally scheduled for Oct. 1, the polls were postponed after the national Parliament struggled to pass an election law because of concerns over the disputed oil-rich northern province of Kirkuk.
And the January election will be held in only 14 of Iraq’s 18 provinces after the new law excluded Kirkuk and the three Kurdish provinces of Irbil, Dohuk and Sulaimaniyah.
Elections in the three Kurdish provinces will not be held until after March 2009 and the existing multicommunal council will continue to administer the province of Kirkuk.
Washington says the poll is crucial to Iraqi stability and a key step in the process of reconciliation among the nation’s divided communities following the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled President Saddam Hussein.
The vote will come after US President George W. Bush steps down on Jan. 20 to be replaced by President-elect Barack Obama.
On Saturday, Iraq’s three-member presidency council approved a controversial resolution that will reserve just six local council seats for the nation’s minority groups, including Christians.
According to a survey published by an Iraqi NGO, the Al-Amal Association, 58 percent of those polled in 11 provinces said they expected to take part in the elections, while 19 percent said they would not.
Voting for independent candidates was deemed a priority for 26.3 percent of the surveyed group of 11,000 Iraqis, while 23.7 percent said they would select democratic and secular blocks.
Only 22.7 percent said they would vote for religious parties or blocks.
Loading ...