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Brief Profiles of Countries, EMBs and Partner Organisations of A-WEB

4. No. of Members in EMB 6. Voting Process
9 A biometric voter card is issued by the IHEC for
5. Terms of office each Iraqi voter; if a voter has been biometrically
5 Years registered before November 9, 2017 (cut-off date
for registering voters for this election) but has not
6. EMB Members selected by picked up their biometric card before elections,
Legislature they will not be able to vote.

7. Chairperson’s Appointing Authority There are four steps for voting. First, the polling
EMB center queue controller checks voters’ hands for in-
8. Names of Elections conducted by EMB delible ink (which would indicate prior voting) and
Presidential, Parliamentary ensures voters have electronic or biometric voter
cards. Second, election staff identify voters using
(B) ELECTORAL PROCESS the electronic voter verification device by scanning
1. Total Population voter cards, taking electronic thumb prints, and
42 Million (Oct., 2019) scanning the ballot quick response code. Third, the
Male: 21 Million Female: 21 Million voter signs the paper voter list (or uses a thumbprint
Registered Electors: 21.5 Million (Apr., 2014) in the case of illiterate voters), and the ballot issuer
provides a ballot and basic guidance on voting. The
2. Method of voter registration last step is casting the ballot into the electronic vot-
In Iraq, Automated voter registration (AVR) is the ing, counting and transmitting device, and dipping
process of registering voters using biometric infor- the voter’s finger in indelible ink.
mation and subsequently using the data to remove
duplications from the voter list. When Iraqis vote Jan. 30, they won’t choose a spe-
cific name from a list of candidates. Nor will they
During the elections, the IHEC used voter verifi-
cation devices to verify the identity of voters. The select a political party, in the traditional sense. In-
device read the voters’ data from the electronic or stead, voters will choose one of the 111 “lists” that
biometric voter card. It also scan voters’ finger- have been certified by the Independent Electoral
prints to confirm identification. Commission. The most popular of these lists are
not parties per se, but loose coalitions of multiple
political parties and interest groups. To choose a
list, voters will step behind a curtain, check a box
on a single ballot with the name, number, and
identifying logos of the 111 lists, and then drop
the ballot into a plastic box. A lottery determined
the order in which lists appear. Because insurgent
violence has made campaigning so difficult, and
since there are so many similar list names, voters
have been told to remember their preferred list’s
number. There are no voting districts - just a single
3. Name of the Document viz Electoral Photo country-wide election. This controversial plan was
Identity Card chosen because it’s easier to organize than draw-
Voter Card ing up electoral districts based on Iraq’s cultures
and ethnicities. However, there will be a separate
4. Voter turnout in last National Elections ballot for provincial councils in Iraq’s 18 political
65.98% regions, called governorates. In Iraq’s Kurdish re-
5. Voting Method gion, there will be a third ballot for the Kurdish Na-
Manual Marking of Ballots tional Parliament.

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