3 million Iraqis are prevented from casting their votes in the upcoming elections

[size=52]3 million Iraqis are prevented from casting their votes in the upcoming elections[/size]

[size=45]Baghdad / Muhammad Sabah[/size]
[size=45]The Electoral Commission said that seventeen million voters updated their data biometrically, while (5) million others were granted an electronic card (short term), adding that there are three million Iraqis who do not participate in the early elections out of 25 million who are entitled to participate.[/size]
[size=45]Despite the work and preparations of the Electoral Commission, discussions and dialogues are still ongoing among the leaders of political blocs to postpone early parliamentary elections to the year 2022, as some of these blocs went to the Federal Court to challenge the election law.[/size]
[size=45]Jumana Al-Ghalai, a spokeswoman for the Electoral Commission, said in a statement to (Al-Mada) that “the commission has completed the first process of the elections, which is to update the voter register that lasted for more than three months, as well as receiving lists of candidates, political alliances and names of candidates that began checking their data.” She added that "among the upcoming preparatory stages of the commission in order to secure the holding of parliamentary elections on the tenth of next October, it has determined the appropriate mechanism to receive the requests of polling officials," indicating that "the first simulation of the devices accelerating results (a complete voting process to ensure the accuracy and speed of the devices." Electronic) will be in the middle of next July.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Ghalai continued her speech by saying that "the commission has conducted maintenance for 63 thousand accelerators for results and transmission, and more than 70 thousand devices are verified by the manufacturer," stressing that "there are 59 thousand polling stations and the remaining devices will be backup."[/size]
[size=45]These electronic devices are characterized by the existence of a sufficient charging period of up to 12 hours for a single device in the event of a power failure at the polling stations, as they depend in their work on the accuracy of the fingerprint that can be matched by 100%, as the fingerprints of the voter will appear on the screen of the verification device for the purpose of expediting the matching process. “. As for the electoral card, the spokeswoman for the Electoral Commission explains that “registration centers are still distributing cards (long and short term),” explaining that “there are (15) million electronic cards that have been printed and about 13 million electoral cards have been distributed.”[/size]
[size=45]She points out that "there are two million electoral cards that are still not distributed and are present in registration centers throughout the Iraqi provinces, and they will be distributed in the coming periods," calling on voters to "review the registration centers to receive these cards."[/size]
[size=45]The Electoral Commission closed the file for updating the voter registry since mid-April. "After the extension period expired, the commission began the process of interrupting the data for voters who updated their records before mid-April, and sent them to the Spanish company Andhra (the company is responsible for printing, checking and transferring electoral cards) to print their electoral cards," Al-Ghalai pointed out. She pointed out that "the Election Commission sent to Andhra a week ago approximately one million and three hundred voter data that was checked in order to print their electoral cards," noting that "there are more than (17) million registered voters biometrically."[/size]
[size=45]She explains that "there are 13 to 14 million voters who have a biometric card out of seventeen million who have updated their records biometric," indicating that "there are two million ready-made cards in the registration centers, in addition to one million and three hundred cards in print."[/size]
[size=45]It turned out that "there are five million voters who have a short-term (electronic) card," noting that "there are (22) million Iraqi voters who have an electronic (short-term) voter card and a biometric (long-term) card."[/size]
[size=45]The commission spokeswoman points out that "the number of voters who are entitled to participate in the upcoming parliamentary elections reaches 25 million voters, of whom three million did not update their electoral records, and therefore they do not have the right to participate in the elections." Their records are from the youth category, specifically those born in 2001, 2002 and 2003.[/size]
[size=45]For his part, the coordinator of the Shams Network for Election Observation, Hawker Jettow, confirms that "the Electoral Commission will continue distributing electoral cards until next September," wondering, "Will these cards be misused by some parties?" And he shows that "adopting the biometric record will limit the process of fraud, repeat voting, or buying cards, as happened in previous elections," indicating that "limiting fraud requires the existence of a match within the electoral center by verifying the voter's fingerprint and identity documents before casting his vote."[/size]
[size=45]"The Electoral Commission has contracted with a specialized company to ensure conformity (...) through the application of conformity to prevent the repeat of the election process or the purchase of cards," Jettow clarifies, noting that "the process of distributing the cards granted the head of the family the right to receive his family's cards, in contrast to what was previously done in the past." Three identification documents are required for each voter.[/size]
[size=45]Jettow calls for: “The Electoral Commission to impose special procedures at every stage of the distribution of cards to prevent manipulation and fraud through the registration process in the presence of the voter himself.[/size]
[size=45]The coordinator of the Shams Network for Election Observation indicates that "the voters who did not update their records and will not participate in the elections are divided between Iraqis abroad, the deceased, and the category of young people who were added for the first time."[/size]
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