Urgent / Elections results to be announced Thursday afternoon – IHEC head

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The preliminary results of the provincial council elections will be announced on Thursday afternoon, a senior elections official said. “The preliminary results of the elections of the 14 provinces, including Anbar, will be announced at 5:00 pm on Thursday (Feb. 5),” Head of the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), Farag al-Haydari, told IraqiNews.com news agency, noting that the final results will be announced after two weeks. “There are no surprises in the results,” he noted. On Saturday (Jan. 31), voters headed to polling stations in Baghdad and 13 other Iraqi provinces to elect their representatives in the country’s provincial councils amidst tight security measures. Over 15 million voters participated in the election, according to the IHEC. Security personnel, prisoners sentenced to less than five years and hospital-bound cast early ballots in the special voting, held on Wednesday (Jan. 28). SH (P) 1