BAGHDAD

Polls opened Sunday in Iraq for early general elections.

Security forces increased measures around election centers to the highest level.

Voters will be searched at checkpoints in front of polling stations and they will not be allowed to bring mobile phones into the buildings.

Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi cast his vote early Sunday in an election center in the Green Zone, according to the official Iraqi News Agency.

He urged Iraqis to participate. "I wanted to register as the first voter to cast his vote,” he said

Shia cleric and politician Ammar al-Hakim and former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki also cast their votes early Sunday.

Voting will continue until 6 p.m. and the Iraqi High Election Commission is expected to announce results within 24 hours.

The Civil Aviation Authority said it would close borders and airspace Saturday evening ahead of the polls.

The agency said the closure will start from 6 p.m. Saturday until 6 a.m. Monday.

Sunday’s elections will see 3,249 candidates representing 21 coalitions and 109 parties vying for seats in the 329-member parliament.

​​​​​​​The election commission said 24 million Iraqis are eligible to cast ballots out of a population of 40 million.

The vote will be supervised by 877 foreign observers.

On Friday, Iraqi security forces displaced Iraqis, and prisoners cast votes in the elections.

The polls were originally scheduled for 2022 but political parties decided to hold early elections following mass protests that erupted in 2019 against deep-seated corruption and poor services.

The vote is the fifth in Iraq since 2003 when a US-led invasion overthrew the regime of former President Saddam Hussein.

*Writing by Zehra Nur Duz

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Voting begins in early general elections in Iraq