UN envoy in Iraq welcomes beginning of parliamentary voting process

Special Representative Martin Kobler. UN Photo/Devra Berkowitz


13 April 2013 – The top United Nations official in Iraq today welcomed the smooth conduct of the Governorate Council Elections' Special Voting, where Iraqi soldiers and policeman cast their ballots ahead of next week's main vote.

“Today's special voting marks the beginning of the voting process,” the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Iraq, Martin Kobler said in a news release.

The country's electoral body, the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), demonstrated “a high level of professionalism in this first election organized under full Iraqi ownership,” Mr. Kobler stressed.

“Now that Iraqi security forces, police and military have exercised their right to cast their ballot, all eyes are focused on the election day on 20 April,” the UN Envoy noted. He urged the security forces to ensure a free and secure environment for the elections.

At least 15.5 million Iraqis are eligible to vote in the 20 April polls, according to official estimates, where more than 8,000 candidates are reportedly vying for 378 seats on provincial councils.

Provincial councils are responsible for nominating governors who take charge of the provinces' administration, finances and reconstruction projects.

“It is of the utmost importance that voters turn out in an orderly and safe environment free of violence, threats and intimidation,” Mr. Kobler concluded.

Next week's elections are the first Iraq has held since parliamentary elections in 2010.

Turkmen representative Gülşan Kemal Ali chosen as 9th Member of New Election Commission

Iraq lawmakers pick commission for next elections

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press  

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's parliament selected on Thursday the ninth and final member of the country's new election commission that is to be in charge of the upcoming provincial and general elections.

The 2013 provincial and the 2014 general vote are expected to shape Iraq's future following the withdrawal of U.S. troops last December. The balloting will likely come against the backdrop of intense political struggles among Iraq's diverse religious and ethnic groups.

Lawmaker Muqdad al-Shuraifi, a member of the new election commission, said legislators on Thursday chose Turkmen representative   Gülşan Kemal Ali as the body's ninth member.
Last week, parliament approved the other eight members but stalled on the ninth because various blocs could not agree on whether to choose a Christian or a Turkmen.

The Independent High Electoral Commission is considered one of Iraq's more powerful institutions. The previous commission found itself for months entangled in a heated political debate after the 2010 parliamentary elections.

A Sunni-backed bloc narrowly won the most seats in those elections. Although it was not enough to secure an overall majority, its strong showing was a surprise in the Shiite-dominated country.

Supporters of Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki repeatedly demanded recounts and complained the vote was plagued with fraud. International observers called the vote and ballot count fair. After a torturous recount, also supervised by the IHEC, the original results were widely found to be accurate.

Al-Maliki eventually kept his job after managing to form a broader Shiite collation.
The previous panel also faced corruption charges against some of its members, including commission chief Faraj Al-Haidari.

Shiite lawmaker Ali al-Allaq said 7,800 people applied for jobs on the new commission and nine were selected from 60 finalists.

"Only the best were chosen," said al-Allaq, adding that U.N. officials supervised the selection process.
Along with the Turkmen Kemal, the new IHEC — which is drawn from Iraq's various ethnic and sectarian factions — has four Shiites, two Sunnis and two Kurds.

The IHEC Invents New Problems

Posted by Reidar Visser on October 29, 2009

After the idea of using the 2004 registers of voters for Kirkuk in the next parliamentary elections has been circulating as an alternative since at least June, all of a sudden yesterday night – and only hours before a bill including an option to use the 2004 registers is scheduled to be presented to parliament for a vote later today – Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) announced that it would be “technically impossible” to use those registers. One press report states that the IHEC cites the fact that the registers were compiled by the United Nations and that the IHEC would need “a very long period of time” to make them compatible with its own system. Another simply says the IHEC does not have the registers and there is even talk about the possible “loss” (fiqdan) of the records!

Meanwhile, the Iraqi press is discussing the contradiction whereby the political council for national security including several key Kurdish representatives first agreed by consensus to a package of three different alternatives for Kirkuk that could be voted on, only to see them rejected by Kurdish politicians the day after. The speculation focuses on possible intra-Kurdish conflicts, highlighting the fact that Masud Barzani was represented at the meeting only by a person acting in his capacity (he himself rarely travels to Baghdad) and once more identifying Barzani and his party as the real obstacle to progress.

It cannot escape notice in this context that Faraj al-Haydari, the chairman of the IHEC, used to be a member of the highest political leadership in Barzani’s party, the KDP. He, along with Qasim al-Abbudi (who broke the news about the “unavailability” of the 2004 registers), has been a frequent focus of criticism by the Iraqi parliament lately which has questioned his political independence.

The main defender of the IHEC against any suggestion about changes to its membership has been UNAMI, the UN body which has consistently sided with the Kurds in the discussion of the election law (and which receives lots of credit in statements by Kurdish politicians for that reason). If it is correct that the IHEC has deliberately withheld information about supposedly insurmountable technical problems concerning the 2004 registers for so long, then the capital I for “independence” in its acronym is no longer meaningful.