About 8 million Iraqis will not participate in the elections, most notably residents of abandoned ci

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[size=52]About 8 million Iraqis will not participate in the elections, most notably residents of abandoned cities[/size]

[size=45]Baghdad/ Tamim Al-Hassan[/size]
[size=45]About a third of voters will be prevented from voting in the upcoming local elections because they do not have a ballot card.[/size]
[size=45]This group is divided into 5 main categories, including residents of cities that were emptied during the ISIS occupation.[/size]
[size=45]Local elections are being held with more than 10 empty or almost empty cities, and about 200 villages facing difficulties in the return of residents.[/size]
[size=45]According to a government statement issued last June, local elections are supposed to be held on December 18.[/size]
[size=45]More than a month ago, the Commission closed the door to updating voter data, as more than a million individuals went to the Commission’s headquarters.[/size]
[size=45]In the final outcome of the update, the Commission recorded that 2,006 people updated the data in a special vote.[/size]
[size=45]According to the latest election law, participation in voting is exclusively through the biometric card.[/size]
[size=45]This decision, due to the weak demand for modernization, will prompt about 8 million Iraqis to boycott the elections, equivalent to about 33% of voters.[/size]
[size=45]Informed sources tell Al Mada that the number of Iraqis who have a biometric card is “16.5 million out of about 24 million who are allowed to vote.” This group belongs to several categories, including those displaced in camps or those living outside those centers. The number of these people is estimated at about half a million Iraqis, more than 300,000 of whom are outside shelter sites, and approximately 200,000 of them do not have cards.[/size]
[size=45]Another 130,000 displaced people are in shelter camps, and it is likely that only 68,000 of them possess biometric cards.[/size]
[size=45]According to local sources in a number of cities, there are about 13 cities and regions that have been subjected to displacement.[/size]
[size=45]The most prominent of these areas is Jurf al-Sakhar, where about 65,000 people, the entire population, left more than 7 years ago and have not returned yet.[/size]
[size=45]They are divided between the largest number who live in areas near Al-Jarf, south of Baghdad, and the “Bzibiz” camp near Fallujah.[/size]
[size=45]The last camp is not talked about in official statements for unknown reasons, even though it includes 1,400 families, all of whom are classified as “ISIS families.”[/size]
[size=45]These families often do not have identification papers, and according to international organizations, there are more than 10,000 Iraqis without official papers due to the events of ISIS.[/size]
[size=45]The second town is Sinjar, north of Mosul, where an estimated 80% of the population has not returned, amounting to about 200,000 people.[/size]
[size=45]In addition to other cities such as Aziz Balad, south of Samarra, which is almost devoid of residents, and Al-Awja near Tikrit, which is the town of Saddam Hussein.[/size]
[size=45]The Suleiman Beg area, east of Salah al-Din, is also almost empty, and parts of Al-Azim, west of Diyala, Baiji, north of Tikrit, and Hawija, southwest of Kirkuk.[/size]
[size=45]In addition to about 200 abandoned villages, the most prominent of which are those located south of Kirkuk, the villages of Amerli east of Salah al-Din, and the villages west of Diyala.[/size]
[size=45]The problem with these areas and camps is that most residents are afraid to return to their areas of residence to vote or update data. The Commission obliges the voter to carry out the procedures to obtain or modify his previous card in his original city.[/size]
[size=45]Only the displaced people in the camps will have the right to vote in the cities where they are located, while the rest will have to return to their homes to vote.[/size]
[size=45]On this basis, a city like Hatra, south of Mosul, has between 15 and 20% of the population accused of collaborating with ISIS.[/size]
[size=45]According to local officials there, their number is “estimated at 25,000, and they will be excluded from the ballot due to their inability to promote transactions due to accusations against them.” The same applies to areas in Tal Afar, west of Mosul, as most of the Sunni Turkmen have left, representing between 35 and 40% of the population (about 30 thousand people).[/size]
[size=45]As for the second category of Iraqis who do not have voter cards, they are expatriates, whose number is estimated at about 1.5 million, and most of them have not returned to the country to update their data.[/size]
[size=45]The third group is the new births between 2004 and 2005, as the centers concerned with the elections indicate that these people are not interested in politics and therefore did not obtain a voter’s card, and their number is also about 1.5 million.[/size]
[size=45]As for the fourth category, they are prisoners and detainees. Their numbers are estimated at between 60 and 70 thousand, and in the recent 2021 elections, only 571 thousand prisoners participated in the vote.[/size]
[size=45]In addition, Hawker Jetto, an election observer, adds a fifth category to those who do not have biometric ballot cards, namely boycotters.[/size]
[size=45]Hooker said in an interview with (Al-Mada) that the last category “are the Iraqis who abstain from voting for reasons of their lack of conviction in the candidates, the Commission’s procedures, and the feasibility of voting.”[/size]
[size=45]The National Coalition, led by former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, had previously announced his boycott of the elections.[/size]
[size=45]The Emtidad Movement, which is considered one of the October protest movements, also reported not participating, in addition to other gatherings such as the Rejection Movement.[/size]
[size=45]Also, the Sadrist movement's audience, which is estimated by the movement's circles at about 20% of voters, may not participate in the vote due to the movement's leader, Muqtada al-Sadr, boycotting the elections.[/size]
[size=45]Jetto mentions that the displaced people in the camps may have less influence on the voting level due to the possibility of participating in the governorates in which they are located in the special ballot.[/size]
[size=45]But it points to the effects that some factions that have spread in areas known as “disputed” may have on the will of voters.[/size]
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