Shafaq News – Nineveh

More than 400,000 biometric voter cards remain unclaimed in Nineveh province, an Iraqi official said on Saturday, just a month ahead of the parliamentary elections.

Member of the Nineveh Provincial Council, Hisham al-Hashemi, told Shafaq News that turnout for collecting biometric cards remains “very low,” calling on citizens to “take initiative and ensure active participation in shaping the future of Nineveh and Iraq.”

Meanwhile, Sufyan al-Mashhadani, director of media at the Nineveh Elections Office, confirmed that the Nineveh Operations Command carried out a large-scale security exercise covering 873 polling centers across the province, as part of early preparations to secure the November 11 parliamentary elections.

Nineveh, a province in northern Iraq bordering Syria, has 2,102,429 registered voters. The province, where Sunni Arabs form the majority alongside Yazidis, Christians, Shabak, and Kurds, holds 34 parliamentary seats, including eight reserved for women.

According to Iraq’s High Electoral Commission (IHEC), the number of eligible voters nationwide exceeds 21.4 million, including around 20 million registered for general voting and 1.3 million for special voting by security personnel, displaced persons, patients, and inmates.

Read more: Elections on schedule, legitimacy in doubt: Iraq heads toward November vote