Parliamentary Committee: Candidate brokers launch campaigns to purchase electronic cards

[size=52]Parliamentary Committee: Candidate brokers launch campaigns to purchase electronic cards[/size]

[size=45]Baghdad/ Firas Adnan[/size]
[size=45]Yesterday, Sunday, the Parliament’s Legal Committee revealed that candidates launched campaigns through brokers to buy voters’ votes, stressing that the measures to limit tampering with polling results are the government’s task, while pointing to the objection of some political forces to amending the electoral law on the grounds of lack of time, the real reason being their desire to retention of electronic cards; Being vulnerable to counterfeiting and selling.[/size]
[size=45]Committee member MP Hussein Al-Aqabi said, in an interview with Al-Mada, that "the public authority, with its various names, should take a number of measures to control a transparent and highly credible electoral process on its scheduled date."[/size]
[size=45]Al-Uqabi added, "The executive means are not linked to the Independent High Electoral Commission, as some imagine, but to the government and its agencies, especially with regard to what is happening within the field of candidacy."[/size]
[size=45]He pointed out that "the High Commission is not concerned with buying votes or electoral cards, and it is the task of the intelligence and security services."[/size]
[size=45]Al-Uqabi finds, “It is impossible to control the ordinary electronic card, and there is much talk that corrupt candidates launched campaigns through brokers; To buy these cards, some of them are missing, and we do not know their fate since the previous elections.”[/size]
[size=45]He explained, "The electronic card is easy to deal with, and it can be used incorrectly and forged, and it is subject to buying and selling, which is what is happening currently, according to some information received by us from different parties."[/size]
[size=45]Al-Uqabi believes that “allowing these cards to vote came to give way to some powerful forces that have the financial means to purchase them.”[/size]
[size=45]He stated, "Going to fair and transparent elections begins with amending the law, and voting is limited to the biometric card, and this is the task of the House of Representatives, which it has to think seriously about during the remainder of the life of the current session."[/size]
[size=45]Al-Uqabi went on to say, "The general atmosphere is witnessing flagrant violations of electoral laws, and this is the government's task by limiting arms to the state and ending fears of political control over polling stations."[/size]
[size=45]For his part, the other committee member, MP Yonadam Kanna, said in a statement to (Al-Mada), that "a meeting that was held more than two months ago with Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi and in the presence of the commission and the leaders of the blocs, during which we did not see a seriousness in amending the electoral law."[/size]
[size=45]Kanna added, "The law contains many contradictions, and the fear comes from some political forces losing their seats if fraud is curbed using the electronic card," and considered "the lack of time and the approaching election date as an excuse to get rid of proceeding with the amendment."[/size]
[size=45]He pointed out, "About six million people are still using the electronic card and have not updated their data, and therefore these cards can be tampered with."[/size]
[size=45]Kanna stressed, "Two million of these electronic cards are unknown, whether they were lost or sold."[/size]
[size=45]He expects, "the elections will witness a relative change that is not at the level we aspired to, and what the demonstrators were aspiring to under the current circumstances."[/size]
[size=45]Kanna pledges, “The government’s success in preparing for fair and transparent elections, with the cooperation of the political blocs, in order to impose the rule of law.”[/size]
[size=45]Kanna concluded, “The competent authorities, especially the commission, were not strict in imposing the biometric card on citizens and were satisfied with calling for it and updating the voter records, and they had to threaten that whoever does not replace his card will lose his right to vote.”[/size]
[size=45]Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi had confirmed his government's commitment on more than one occasion to hold early elections on time, according to what was determined on the tenth of next October, according to a decree issued by the President of the Republic, Barham Salih.[/size]
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