After initially canvassing various other dates, Farid Ayar, spokesman of the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, announced that the election will take place Jan. 30. Says Abdel Hussein al-Hindawi, the head of the Electoral Commission: "These are the first free, multi-party elections since 1954 and I can tell you that according to our 6,000 electoral agents throughout the country, there is a real fervour [to vote] even in the Sunni regions." The numbers involved in the exercise are considerable:
Nearly 14 million voters are eligible to go to the polls, according to the number of ration cards issued to adults by Iraq's commerce ministry under the UN programme "oil for food" in the days of Saddam. But there are newcomers who have returned home after Saddam's fall in April 2003. They will be able to register to vote by showing two identity documents proving their Iraqi nationality. In addition, some three million Iraqis living overseas, many of whom fled the regime, will also be able to vote from January 28 to 30 in 14 countries. These are Australia, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Iran, Jordan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and the United States.
Iraq is spending 250 million dollars for this landmark election. Voting papers are being printed in Switzerland to avoid counterfeiting, and a company will distribute them to the 9,000 polling stations which will be equipped with 40,000 ballot boxes. Each voting list will have a number and a logo.
Adds Hindawi: "We have banned any emblem showing violence or religious symbols. . . . Under this rule, we have rejected one list which depicted a tank, another which opted for a Koran with a sun, and a third which had mass graves."
Elsewhere, Hindawi adds that voters will have sufficient opportunity to acquaint themselves with party logos: "We will have an electoral campaign where each entity has to inform voters who they should vote for the party. The campaign will run from Dec. 15 to Jan. 28. For example, the Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution in Iraq [a popular conservative religious party] may already have a logo that people recognize, so they'll use that in the media campaign." There may be a lot of these logos to learn, as the authorities have approved 156 political parties to run in the election (while rejecting 56 parties that failed to fulfill necessary criteria). "The Iraqi Islamic Party is one of those approved. The Sunni group had threatened to boycott the election to protest the U-S-led assault on Fallujah but later decided to participate."
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Nearly 14 million voters are eligible to go to the polls, according to the number of ration cards issued to adults by Iraq's commerce ministry under the UN programme "oil for food" in the days of Saddam. But there are newcomers who have returned home after Saddam's fall in April 2003. They will be able to register to vote by showing two identity documents proving their Iraqi nationality. In addition, some three million Iraqis living overseas, many of whom fled the regime, will also be able to vote from January 28 to 30 in 14 countries. These are Australia, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Iran, Jordan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and the United States.
Iraq is spending 250 million dollars for this landmark election. Voting papers are being printed in Switzerland to avoid counterfeiting, and a company will distribute them to the 9,000 polling stations which will be equipped with 40,000 ballot boxes. Each voting list will have a number and a logo.
Adds Hindawi: "We have banned any emblem showing violence or religious symbols. . . . Under this rule, we have rejected one list which depicted a tank, another which opted for a Koran with a sun, and a third which had mass graves."
Elsewhere, Hindawi adds that voters will have sufficient opportunity to acquaint themselves with party logos: "We will have an electoral campaign where each entity has to inform voters who they should vote for the party. The campaign will run from Dec. 15 to Jan. 28. For example, the Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution in Iraq [a popular conservative religious party] may already have a logo that people recognize, so they'll use that in the media campaign." There may be a lot of these logos to learn, as the authorities have approved 156 political parties to run in the election (while rejecting 56 parties that failed to fulfill necessary criteria). "The Iraqi Islamic Party is one of those approved. The Sunni group had threatened to boycott the election to protest the U-S-led assault on Fallujah but later decided to participate."
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