Woman casts vote on “deceased” hubby’s behalf

NINEWA-ANBAR / IraqiNews.com: Balloting during Iraq’s provincial council elections has witnessed several bloopers, namely in Mosul and Falluja cities, where a woman wanted to vote on behalf of her deceased husband, another protested authorities’ refusal to allow his wife no. 2 to cast her vote while a third brought his ration, not election, card. “Hadj Abu Ali, a 70-year-old illiterate man, inserted his ration card instead of his election card. He tried to get it out of the box but officials told him he has to wait until the box is opened for vote counting,” the director of the al-Jumhuriya election center in Falluja city, 45 km west of Baghdad, told IraqiNews.com news agency. After casting her vote, a woman of the name Umm Jabbar, 60, asked the director whether she can vote on behalf of her husband who died three years ago. He said he tried to explain to the woman, who was carrying a large photo of her deceased husband in her hands, that this would not be possible. “The woman, however, insisted on voting on her husband’s behalf, saying that he always wanted to participate in the elections,” he added. Jassem Mohammed, the spokesman for the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC)’s Ninewa office, told IraqiNews.com that a voter in the polling station of the al-Kalk district, eastern Mosul, has protested that his wife’s name was not included in the voter lists. “Registry officials found out that the woman with the name included in the man’s family history is his first wife who died a while ago and that the woman who was with him in the station was his second wife,” Mohammed said. Baghdad and 13 Iraqi provinces have started accepting voters as of 07:00 a.m. on Saturday (Jan. 31) to select their candidates for the provincial council elections by virtue of which 440 local council members will be elected. AmR (S) 3