IHEC: 98% voter turnout in special voting for Kurdistan parliament elections

Shafaq News/ On Friday, the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) announced that the overall voter turnout for the special voting in the Kurdistan Region's parliamentary elections reached 98%.

In a press conference, Aisar Yassin, the official spokesperson for the Kurdistan Parliament elections, stated, "The voter turnout in Duhok was 98%, in Erbil 97%, in Al-Sulaymaniyah 97%, and in Halabja 96%."

Yassin also provided figures for voter participation in other provinces, reporting 43% in Nineveh, 56% in Kirkuk, 62% in Diyala, 8% in Al-Anbar, 79% in Baghdad Karkh, 4% in Wasit, 54% in Saladin, and 60% in Baghdad Al-Rusafa.

The special voting day, held exclusively for Peshmerga forces and internal security personnel, began at 7 a.m. with 165 polling centers open across the Kurdistan Region and ended at 6:00 p.m.

By noon, turnout figures showed 77% participation in Duhok, 67% in Al-Sulaymaniyah, and 64% in Halabja. The last estimated percentage of participation in Kirkuk reached 50% by 3:30 p.m.

Earlier today, Judge Omar Ahmed Mohammed, the head of the Board of Commissioners of Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), described the voting process for the Kurdistan Parliament’s sixth term as "smooth and orderly."

A total of 1,091 candidates, including men and women, are competing for 100 seats in the regional parliament, five of which are reserved for minority communities as part of a quota system.

According to the election law, at least 30 seats must be allocated to women.

The Kurdistan Region has 2,899,578 registered voters, of whom 215,960 were eligible to participate in the special vote. The remaining 2,683,618 voters will cast their ballots in the general election scheduled for Sunday.