Approximately 614,000 Iraqis will today elect their representatives for the local councils in the first stage of the country’s local elections. Today’s voters include members of the security forces, prisoners and hospital patients. The second stage of the elections will take place on Saturday.
Groups affiliated with Al-Qa’ida warned they would launch attacks against people who went to the polls, the London-based daily Al-Hayyat reported.
The paper also reported that a bomb had exploded in one of the polling stations in Falluja, but the Iraqi Ministry of Interior later denied the report.
Most Sunni parties boycotted the last local elections, which took place four years ago. This time, the Sunnis will participate in the vote and will force major adjustments in the local political arena. The Sunnis, which account for one third of the population, will also take part in the general elections, scheduled to take place at the end of the year.
Iraqi politicians are warning of attempts to forge the elections’ results, saying this may bring people to give up on the democratic process and go back to the path of violence.
Over 800 international monitors will arrive by Saturday to supervise the election process, the United Nations announced.