Iraq sees 80 percent biometric voter registration for upcoming elections

Four in five eligible voters in Iraq have successfully updated their biometric data but the country has seen notable holdouts in its population.

More than 80 percent of eligible Iraqis have biometrically registered for the country’s sixth parliamentary elections scheduled for November 11. However, 18.4 percent of the Kurdistan Region have failed to renew their registration, according to a report in Peregraf.

This amounts to a “pre-election boycott,” according to the publication, with around 700,000 eligible voters of the region’s electorate effectively excluding themselves from the vote.

According to final data released by the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), a total of 21,400,089 Iraqis have renewed their biometric registration during the nationwide campaign that started May 25 (via Peregraf).

Of that total figure, 3,092,275 voters are from the Kurdistan Region, accounting for 14.4 percent of the overall Iraqi electorate. But 18.4 percent of the total regional electorate did not renew their registration and are therefore ineligible to vote.

In the previous parliamentary elections held in October 2021, out of more than 3.4 million registered voters in the Kurdistan Region, fewer than 1.3 million cast valid votes. This disengagement has prompted concerns over democratic representation. The Kurds are an ethnic group who reside predominantly in Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria.

The UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) is providing technical support for the upcoming elections. “UNAMI will spare no effort in providing the most professional technical support towards this end, including efforts to promote the widest participation of women, youth and minorities,” said Special Representative Mohamed Al Hassan, who also heads UNAMI.

There has been encouraging participation from young people and university students in Iraq, with many from this demographic receiving newly issued biometric voter cards.

In a bid to enhance its biometric data storage capacity, Iraq is building a data center in partnership with Thales, which will integrate its national ID and forensic data.

At the start of the year, Veridos also celebrated a milestone of issuing 40 million national digital IDs in the country.

Article Topics

biometric enrollment  |  biometrics  |  digital identity  |  elections  |  Iraq  |  voter registration