Iraq witnessed a substantial turnout in its early voting phase for provincial elections, with 67% of eligible voters participating. This preliminary voting, primarily for security forces and internally displaced persons, took place on Saturday, two days before the country’s broader provincial elections scheduled for Monday. The Iraqi Independent Electoral Commission announced that 706,805 out of 1,050,653 eligible voters had cast their ballots.
The early voting began at 7 am local time and concluded at 6 pm across 15 provinces, excluding the three provinces of the semiautonomous Kurdistan region. Security personnel, including soldiers and policemen, were seen lining up to vote at various polling centers in Baghdad and other cities. In total, more than 1 million voters from the security forces were expected to participate in 565 polling centers.
This election comes after a decadelong gap since the last provincial elections held in April 2013.