Shafaq News – Baghdad / Al-Anbar / Basra (Updated at 19:57)

Iraqi security forces arrested several individuals on Sunday for electoral violations in Baghdad, al-Anbar, and Basra as special voting concluded ahead of Tuesday’s general parliamentary elections.

A security source told Shafaq News that in Baghdad’s al-Rusafa district, three people were detained for promoting political candidates near a polling center. “They were found with cash and promotional cards,” the source said. In al-Karkh, another person was caught distributing campaign materials to voters near a polling site.

In al-Anbar, security forces detained a man in al-Amiriyah for allegedly attempting to buy voter cards at 50,000 Iraqi dinars (about $38) each. Earlier, another group was arrested near the al-Amjad polling center in Ramadi for involvement in vote buying and selling, with cash and campaign materials seized at the scene.

Additional arrests took place in al-Habbaniyah, where three individuals—including a security officer—were accused of purchasing votes near the Khaldiya and al-Huda schools. According to the source, “Each vote was being bought for 250,000 dinars (about $190).”

In Basra, security forces reported two major incidents. In the first, a gunfight erupted in the city’s al-Seimer area, leaving two young men dead and two others wounded. Also, a police officer was arrested for allegedly buying votes near a polling station in al-Qibla’s al-Qaim neighborhood. A security source told our agency that the arrest was carried out by the National Security Service after receiving intelligence from local sources and the al-Qibla intelligence unit. The officer was caught purchasing voter cards and found with 1.2 million dinars and campaign cards for a specific candidate.

Separately, a source in Nineveh said violations were reported at a newly established polling center in Rabiaa, where relatives of a Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) commander allegedly expelled monitors and pressured staff to vote for certain candidates.

“The security forces will take all legal measures against anyone attempting to manipulate the electoral process or interfere with voters’ freedom, in order to protect the integrity of the elections,” the source said.

The arrests come amid heightened security for Iraq’s 2025 parliamentary elections. More than 170,000 Interior Ministry personnel were deployed around polling centers to ensure a secure and transparent vote. Special voting concluded at 6:00 pm for security, defense, and service personnel, as well as internally displaced persons (IDPs), across 809 polling centers and 4,501 voting stations nationwide.

Ahead of the general elections on November 11, Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) has disqualified 848 candidates for violating electoral law and tightened enforcement to curb voter intimidation and illegal campaigning.

Read more: Iraq’s 2025 poll: +21M voters, new law, fading monitors, and fierce bloc rivalries