Security forces stand guard outside a polling station during the parliamentary election in Baghdad, May 12, 2018.REUTERS/Wissm al-Okili
AM:11:31:02/10/2021
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SULAIMANI — Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission
(IHEC) said on Friday (October 1) that Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF)
fighters are ineligible for special voting in the upcoming parliamentary
election.
The vast majority of voters who participate will head to the
polls on October 10, but members of certain groups will cast ballots on October
8, in many cases because they will have responsibilities on the main election
day.
Employees of the federal ministries of interior and defense,
the Counterterrorism Service, and the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG)
ministries of interior and Peshmerga affairs will be eligible for special
voting, along with internally displaced persons (IDPs) and prisoners.
IHEC Spokesperson Nibras Abu Souda said in a statement that
the commission had asked the PMF to provide data so that its affiliates could
be included in the special vote, but the PMF was very late in providing the
names and, therefore, would not be included.
PMF members who meet all ordinary criteria can vote on
October 10.
Created to fight Islamic State (ISIS), the PMF is a
coordinating body for a large number of militias.
The political arms of some of those militias successfully
ran candidates for the Council of Representatives last cycle and several are
running candidates again this time.
(NRT Digital Media)