Three-quarters of Iraq voters register for election

BAGHDAD

Three-quarter of Iraqi voters have registered for this month’s parliamentary election, while voters abroad show little interest in the polls, according to an Iraqi electoral official.

Iraqis will cast ballot on May 12 in the first parliamentary polls since last year’s defeat of Daesh terrorist group after a three-year war.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency on Tuesday, Alsayed Saeed Hamdi, a member of the High Electoral Commission, said: “75 percent of the 24.33 million voters have so far registered for the election”.

He said 65% of voters in Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, have obtained their voter cards to cast ballot in the polls.

Saeed said Iraqi voters abroad have shown little interest in the May 12 election.

“We have established election centers in 13 different countries, but there has been is little interest among voters abroad,” he said.

“So far, only 35,000 voters have applied online to vote in the polls,” he said.

Around 420,000 Iraqis abroad had voted in the 2014 polls.

Saeed said several election centers have been opened in Turkey, where around 300,000 Iraqis live.

“Security personnel will cast ballot on May 10, while voters abroad will vote on May 11,” he said.

According to the electoral official, initial results of the vote will be announced within 24 hours.

"The final results will be made public within two weeks," he said.

The parliamentary election is the second since the U.S withdrawal from Iraq in 2011 and the fourth since U.S.-led forces invaded the Arab country to topple the regime of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Reporting by Haydar Hadi; Writing by Ali Murat Alhas