Iraqis headed to the polls on Saturday morning in the country’s fourth elections since the fall of the former regime in 2003, to choose 329 out of 6,990 candidates, including 4,979 men and 2,011 women.
The US embassy in Baghdad warned about possible terrorist attacks targeting polling stations.
In a statement released on Friday, the US mission claimed it has received information of the targeting of voting centers throughout Iraq, naming specifically the Baghdad neighborhoods of Umm al-Qura and Ghazaliya as areas of particular concern.
“The Embassy has temporarily curtailed movement of its personnel to these areas,” the statement said, urging US citizens in Iraq to “be aware of [their] surroundings and enhance [their] personal security.”
The Iraqi authorities announced a state of alert for securing the elections process and adopted tight security measures, including the closure of airports and land borders.
“The security forces are ready to secure the elections and ensure that all voters reach the polling stations easily and exercise their democratic right,” the Joint Operations Command said in a statement.
For its part, the Ministry of the Interior said it has put in place a security plan to protect the voters and polling stations, promising a “perfect” atmosphere on elections day.
Around two million Iraqis from the armed forces, security services, the Kurdish Peshmerga, prison inmates and members of the Iraqi community in 21 countries cast their ballots on Thursday and Friday. About 24.3 million Iraqis are entitled to vote in this year’s elections.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said that the election commission would announce preliminary results within hours or the next day thanks to electronic counting and sorting system.
The Iraqi Electoral Commission allowed 963 international observers, more than 133,000 party and entity representatives, 75,000 local observers and more than 1,400 media and television stations to participate in monitoring the electoral process across the country.
According to statistics published by the Electoral Commission, 87 entities and political alliances are competing in the elections to elect 329 deputies.
