Jordan Times
Monday, January 31, 2005
90% of registered expatriates
cast ballots - IOM
By Alia Shukri Hamzeh, Jordan Times with agency dispatches
AMMAN, January 31 - Around 90 per cent of registered Iraqi expatriates voted in
Sunday's landmark elections, the International Organization for Migration (IOM)
said yesterday.
On the basis of data at our disposal, we forecast that the participation rate
of Iraqis abroad will be around 90 per cent, maybe more, head of the IOM's Out
of Country Voting, Peter Erben, was quoted by Agence France-Presse as telling
reporters in Amman.
Some 280,000 Iraqi expatriates registered to vote in Australia, Britain, Canada,
Denmark, France, Germany, Iran, Jordan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Syria, Turkey,
the United Arab Emirates and United States for their country's 275-member
national assembly. The IOM, which has organized elections in trouble spots such
as Afghanistan, hoped for one million Iraqis to register to vote abroad.
There were no reports of any major violence during the voting in the Middle
East, North America, Australia and western Europe.
In Jordan, where thousands of Iraqis continued to pour into the Kingdom's 12
designated polling stations over the past three days, the IOM reported that four
voters attempted to cast ballots more than once. A total of 20,166 Iraqi
expatriates out of a 200,000 exile community living in Jordan registered to cast
their ballots.
Erben said figures obtained at midday by the IOM, which organized the vote for
the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, in the Middle East and western
Europe indicated a turnout of over 80 per cent and 75 per cent respectively.
Voting on the third and last day Sunday was highest in Jordan and Iran, with a
turnout of 90 per cent in both countries.
Iran had the largest number of Iraqi expatriates registered for the elections
almost 61,000 out of a total of just 280,000 across the globe.
Erben said the first expatriate count would start in Melbourne, and then proceed
on an individual basis in polling stations across 36 cities in 14 countries.
He said the counting was expected to conclude by February 5 and the results will
be declared in Iraq by the electoral commission at an undisclosed date.
According to news reports, two Israeli reporters of Iraqi origin cast their
ballots in Amman.