SULAIMANI (ESTA) — The Iraqi government said it had thwarted an attempt to rig the early parliamentary elections, scheduled for next month.
Iraqi prime minister’s press office said the security service carried out a preemptive operation to arrest a number of suspects that worked to rig the Oct. 10 elections.
A number of electoral commission employees were pressured with “the aim of mixing political cards and creating chaos”, the PM’s office said in a statement on Wednesday.
The suspects worked by “investing relations with employees of the Electoral Commission, with the aim of provoking political chaos in Iraq, through a social media network, including a site called ‘The Green Lady’,” it stated.
“The government’s commitment to secure, fair elections, provide all its requirements, maintain its neutral responsibility for competition in the electoral process and support it,” the premier’s office said.
Iraq is scheduled to hold early elections on October 10, in response to the anti-government protests against corruption and lack of public services.
The previous parliamentary elections in Iraq were held on May 12, 2018, and the next elections were originally scheduled to take place in 2022.
