Shafaq News – Erbil / Baghdad

Iraq and the Kurdistan Region recorded more than 1,000 violations during the first three weeks of campaigning for the November 11 Iraqi parliamentary elections, the Metro Center for Journalist Rights and Advocacy in al-Sulaymaniyah reported on Tuesday.

Rahman Gharib, the Center’s representative in the Shams Network for Monitoring Elections, confirmed to Shafaq News that field teams documented 1,110 cases grouped into three levels of severity. “Al-Sulaymaniyah, Erbil, Baghdad, and Basra exceeded 100% of the normal violation rate.”

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Al-Anbar, Dhi Qar, Saladin, Diyala, Kut, and Maysan recorded rates between 50 and 100%, while other provinces, including one in the Kurdistan Region, remained below that range.

The most frequent breaches, he added, involved the use of government property for campaign purposes, destruction of posters, inflammatory language, pressure on candidates, and vote-buying.

The upcoming elections will determine 329 members of the Council of Representatives under a proportional representation system, reinstated after the 2021 single non-transferable vote model. Out of Iraq’s population of nearly 46 million, more than 21.4 million are eligible to vote, including over 3 million in the Kurdistan Region.

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