High voting turnout in Sadr City – IHEC official

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Voting turnout in election centers in the eastern Baghdad district of Sadr City went up by 60 percent after 02:00 p.m. Baghdad local time, according to an official source within Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) on Saturday. “Voters coming to election centers increased by 60 percent and the process and security measures on the ballot stations are going smoothly,” Qusai Mohsen al-Musharraf, who oversees 14 voting centers in Sadr City, told IraqiNews.com news agency. Meanwhile, in the oil-rich southern Iraq port city of Basra, 590 km south of Baghdad, voting increased by 60 percent one hour before the boxes were closed, observers from different stations in central, southern and western Basra said. There are about 490 polling centers in Basra where 81 political parties, coalitions and independent candidates are vying to occupy 35 seats in the provincial council in the city. Some 1.435 million voters participate in the city’s local elections. Voting centers in Baghdad and other 13 provinces started at 07:00 a.m. Baghdad local time to receive eligible voters who are electing their candidates to occupy all 440 seats in local councils amidst blanket security measures. In Thi-Qar province, which lies 385 km south of Baghdad, election officials said that turnout on the city’s local council elections in the areas of Awasha and al-Hussein reached only 30 percent of the number of eligible voters registered in the IHEC Thi-Qar office books. In Babel, 100 km south of Baghdad, the IHEC office director said there was massive turnout on ballot stations in the city. “Polling centers received large numbers in excess of 50 percent. A center in Hilla, the capital city of Babel, registered 2,300 voters while the al-Shahid al-Sadr center, dedicated to the relocated Iraqis, registered 2,230,” Hussein Abad Ali Khelief told IraqiNews.com news agency. AmR (S)/SR 1