The Preliminary Report of Three Major Election Observation Networks on the Parliamentary Elections i

The first Report of Three Election Monitoring Networks in Iraq which Observed the Iraqi Parliamentary Elections:

Baghdad, 13 March 2010: course of the electoral process to the Iraqi parliament in the governorates of Iraq, did not included surprises for observational networks, both in terms of voter turnout or the nature of the security situation characterized by semi-established ordert, except for explosions before today in Baghdad and Diyala, Nineveh, Anbar, Salahddin  in the Election Day.

  41,652 observers for the "three networks" who were based in 41,652 polling stations out of 52,000 polling stations across the governorates noticed the broad participation of voters, which exceeded 62% of the total number of registered voters. That doesn’t mean that there were not a few who have been deprived of their right to vote. This occurred either as a result of being military personnel who they were not registered in the list, or the fact that some voters did not have their names transferred to the lists of voters in polling stations.

The elections took place in the presence of a very large number of independent local observers, as well as representatives of political entities and Arab and foreign observers. Besides new measures has been implemented for the first time including (Fraud limitation) and the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) commitment not to extend the voting period which resulted in confusing the process in previous elections.

Weak Points Identified by the Three Network’s (Tammuz, Shams, Election Integrity) Obervers:

•1)       Continued campaigning by certain political entities and candidates in the media silence period decided upon by the IHEC and continued during the Election Day (ED) inside the polling stations.

•2)       Exploitation of state institutions and equipments, including vehicles, by some officials to support their political campaign.

•3)       The absence of the names of thousands of voters despite the fact that a large number of names were registered in the previous elections. This includes displaced voters and employees of the security forces.

•4)       Failure to observe the large number of voters in remote rural areas, in particular, in the distribution of polling centers and stations.

•5)       The failure to prepare all the basic necessities and the effectiveness of the ink to mark the finger of voters, despite IHEC’s announcement that it is keen on the presence of all supplies and the effectiveness of the ink.

•6)       The Inefficiency of some cadres of IHEC in the management of the centers and polling stations, in addition to the non-neutrality of some of them.

•7)       Allowing unauthorized persons inside polling stations.

•8)       Allowing voters to vote on behalf of others in some polling stations, as well as allowing collective voting and this is contrary to IHEC’s regulations and instructions.

With Regard to Security Forces;

•1)       Despite the high discipline and commitment to neutrality that characterized the conduct of armed forces and internal security to protect the electoral process, we detected several cases in some provinces in which the security forces were "urging" people to vote for a specific list.

•2)       Preventing observers from entering polling stations without justifiable reasons, and the seizure of a number of networks’ observers who were monitoring the election.

•3)       The presence of a number of security forces even within the voting hall which sometimes hindered the movement of voters and confused them about ensuring privacy in the voting.

Abroads Voting (Conditional):

The failure to open polling stations in many countries where large numbers of Iraqi voters live, which deprived them of their right to participate in the election. The lack of clear procedures on the use of official Iraqi documents, for example (the quality of passport or other document evidencing the subordination of the voter to the province) has deprived others to exercise their electoral right.

It should be mentioned that the conditional voting undermined the confidentiality of the voting of Iraqis abroad. This happened because the names and numbers of the ration card for each voter has been put in separate envelopes tied to each other in order to check voter’s name later in the electoral register which didn’t exist in advance, a procedure eliminates the secret nature of the vote.

Suggestions:

The three observation networks of (Tammuz, Shams, and Election Integrity) stress the need to:

– Accelerate the implementation of the census enumeration of voters and prove their home areas, in order to ensure the best appropriate division of the distribution of voters, and to ensure that no citizen is disenfranchised from her/ his right to vote as a result of the current shortcomings of the electoral register. In addition the census would determine accurately the number of seats in the parliament.

– Expedite the issuance of the Party Law, which regulates sources of funding, and forces them to comply with laws and regulations of IHEC, and especially not to use public and state property for the benefit of any entity competing in the elections.

– To ensure the highest efficiency of all cadres of IHEC, either at management level, or their neutrality, or the courage in immediate termination of any irregularity by any party, or the protection of the electoral process as it unfolds.

–  IHEC needs to transfer its cadres between polling centers and stations among provinces in the upcoming elections.

– Making sure of the quality requirements of the electoral process and their conformity with the specifications that it has selected to avoid recurrence of the existence of non-identical equipments as documented in the reports of observation networks.

–  Prevent any form of interference in part of the government in the functioning of observers and trying to stop them from monitoring and in some cases, detention without any justification.

– Accelerate the announcement of the ballot results in the shortest period of time after closure of the ballot box, in order to avoid what might encourage the rise of doubts about the safety of sorting and counting of votes.