100 int’l observers to monitor Iraq’s local elections – UN

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: A UN special envoy on Thursday said that 100 international observers will monitor Iraq’s provincial council elections but the country’s Independent High Electoral Commission said it has not so far registered any of them. Staffan de Mistura’s statements came during a meeting of the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) with the IHEC as well as a number of leaders of political blocs in the Iraqi parliament, according to a release by the parliament. “The UNAMI has agreed with observers from European and non-European countries to monitor the elections,” said de Mistura as quoted in the release received by IraqiNews.com news agency. “The number of observers reached 100. There is going to be an international presence much larger than in any other process in the past,” he added. De Mistura said that the foreign observers will be working round the clock during the vote counting and would pay unannounced visits to ballot stations to get acquainted with the course of the elections. The UN special envoy called on all blocs and parties participating in the elections to offer their observers. He said that all the election equipment and paraphernalia, including Indian-made indelible election ink, papers made in Britain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and other tools made in China. Election ink, or electoral stain, is a semi-permanent ink or dye that is applied to the forefinger (usually) of voting during elections in order to prevent electoral fraud such as double voting. “The UNAMI has provided training courses for more than 40,000 persons to monitor the elections, in addition to 23,000 others who received training from other organizations,” de Mistura said. AmR (S) 1