Special voting begins in Iraq with participation of 600,000

ARBIL /Iraqi News The special voting began on Thursday morning in Iraq‘s parliamentary election, which will elect a government that will guide the country, with the participation of more than 600,000 voters, head of the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) said. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis are expected to take part in early voting, a one-day session designed for those who might not be able to get to the polls Sunday, when the rest of the country votes. “The special voting started at 7:00am on Thursday (March 4) with the participation of 630,000 voters and will continue until 7:00pm,” Faraj al-Haidari told Iraqi News. “The IHEC has opened 400 centers, including 2500 polling stations throughout Iraq for the special voting,” he added. He underlined that the number of those who have the right to take part in the early elections in Kurdistan is 150,000. Early voters include detainees, hospital patients and military and security personnel who will be working election day. About 19 million of Iraq‘s estimated 28 million people are eligible to vote in the elections, which will take place in 16 countries around the world. Security is expected to be extremely tight Thursday with officials in the western province of Anbar already announcing a vehicle ban on Thursday morning. SH (S) 1