IHEC gears up for polls

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) on Saturday said it has completed its preparations for the upcoming parliamentary elections, scheduled to take place early next year. “One million voters out of a total of 19 million from all over the country have converged on the voter registration offices to update their particulars,” a commission member, Sardar Abdulkareem, said in a press conference held at the commission’s office in Arbil, which was attended by IraqiNews.com news agency. “The commission has completed all preparations for the elections whether an open-slate or a closed-slate system is adopted,” Abdulkareem noted. Elections are scheduled to be held on January 16, 2010 to choose a new parliament for the country. The Iraqi Parliament has not passed the new electoral law thus far due to several disputes over a mechanism for holding elections in Kirkuk and whether to allocate all seats in the parliament by a system of proportional representation, keep Iraq as a single electoral constituency, or adopt an open-slate system. SS (S) 1