Electoral silence enters into effect

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The countdown of the provincial council elections in 14 Iraqi provinces started amid an electoral campaign silence which the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) announced as of 7:00am on Friday. Observers and mass media are monitoring any violation of the campaign silence, as all campaigns are banned, according to the elections law. Iraqi police imposed a curfew Friday in the northern city of Mosul and planned to seal the borders of Basra in the south, the first in a series of security measures in advance of this weekend’s provincial elections, officials said. Other measures planned include closing Iraq’s international borders, ordering traffic bans across Baghdad and major cities and halting air traffic. Hundreds of women, including teachers and civic workers, have been recruited to help search women voters after a rise in female suicide bombers last year. UN Representative in Iraq Staffan de Mistura on Thursday said that the UN will deploy 400 international observers in Iraq to follow up the process of provincial elections in the country. On Wednesday (Jan. 28), thousands of police, soldiers, hospital patients and prisoners took part in the special voting. The elections are seen by Washington and Baghdad as a crucial test of Iraq’s stability in the face of simmering unrest as US troops prepare to accelerate their plan to withdraw from Iraq by 2011. More than 14,400 candidates are competing for 440 seats in 14 of the country’s 18 provinces in the elections. SH (S) 1