High turnout in Kurdistan during special voting

Shafaq News – Erbil (Updated at 16:22)

Voter turnout in the special voting for Iraq’s 2025 parliamentary elections was particularly high in the Kurdistan Region by midday, Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) reported on Sunday, with overall turnout reaching an average of 60% nationwide.

According to IHEC, the Kurdistan Region led nationwide participation at 77% by midday, with Erbil, Duhok, and al-Sulaymaniyah exceeding 75%, while turnout in the central and southern provinces ranged between 50 and 85%.

At the “Kurdistan New” polling center in al-Sulaymaniyah, Shafaq News correspondent observed that 1,156 of 1,300 eligible voters had cast their ballots, representing a 96% turnout. Kirkuk recorded a lower participation rate of around 60%.

Nebard Omar, head of the Kurdistan Electoral Office, confirmed that minor technical issues in four polling stations were quickly resolved. He added that voting proceeded smoothly and no legal violations were recorded.

Special voting for security, defense, and service sectors, as well as internally displaced persons, began at 7:00 a.m. Sunday across 809 polling centers and 4,501 voting stations. Ahead of the general election on Tuesday, November 11, approximately 20 million Iraqis are eligible to vote nationwide, including over 3 million in Kurdistan.

Read more: Iraq’s 2025 poll: +21M voters, new law, fading monitors, and fierce bloc rivalries