The Iraqi High Commission of Elections urged residents as well as internally displaced people in both Ninewa and Kirkuk provinces to seize the opportunity and renew their voter ID cards prior to the final deadline set for October 15, 2019 to be able to participate in upcoming elections.
The biometric card will be the only documents which allow eligible voters to cast their ballots.
Riyash Badran, spokesman to the electoral body’s council of commissioner’s, in a statement, stressed that “October 15 will be the last chance for the renewal of voter ID cards.”
It was the second time that the commission extends the deadline after it was first scheduled to end on August 11.
Riyadh Badran stressed the need for the government departments, including the local administration in both provinces to encourage civil servants to renew their biometric cards.
Earlier, the Iraqi council of ministers committed members of the security forces to issue voter ID cards.
The commission has intensified its efforts to register IDPs, opening 14 stations in IDP camps and forming mobile teams to provide facilitations round the clock for citizens at home or at their workplaces.
The Electoral body has set April 1st of as a date for holding provincial elections in Iraq, except the Kurdistan Region provinces.
The last provincial elections in Iraq were held in 2013, except in Kirkuk where disputes among the province’s diverse components, including voter rolls and the normalization of the situation in the province have delayed the process since 2005.
