SULAIMANI (ESTA) — More than 220 U.N. and EU observers will monitor the upcoming parliamentary elections in Iraq, according to an electoral commission member.
Member of Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) media office Imad Jamil Mohsen said up to 150 U.N. observers and more than 70 EU spectators would monitor the elections in Iraq.
The Arab League would also send observers from Arab countries to monitor the poll, Mohsen added, according to national Iraqi news agency.
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.
Last month, head of IHEC commissioners’ council judge Jaleel Adnan Khalaf said he had invited more than 75 countries and international organizations to observe the elections, according to al-Monitor.
In May, the U.N. Security Council unanimously authorized U.N. Envoy Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert to provide “a strengthened, robust and visible U.N. team, with additional staff, in advance of Iraq’s forthcoming election, to monitor Iraq’s election day with as broad a geographic coverage as possible”.
According to the resolution, UNAMI should “engage, encourage, and coordinate with, and provide, as appropriate, logistical and security support to international and regional third-party observers invited by the government of Iraq.”
