Jordan Times
Tuesday, December 28, 2004
Jordan accredited centre for counting Iraqi votes — Mulki
AMMAN (Petra) — The government and the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq signed a deal, under which Jordan was accredited as a centre for counting Iraqi votes, a senior official said on Monday.
Foreign Minister Hani Mulki announced the agreement after meeting his Iraqi counterpart Hoshiyar Zebari yesterday.
Zebari said talks were under way with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) to organise the participation of the Iraqi expatriates in the elections.
He said the Kingdom is one of the primary polling stations for elections because it hosts a large Iraqi community. Officials said 100,000-120,000 Iraqis currently live in Jordan, but independent sources estimate the number at 400,000. For his part, Mulki said his talks with Zebari covered next month's meeting of Iraq's neighboring countries in Amman. Last month, IOM, the UN body tasked with helping expatriate Iraqis to take part in the January elections, said Amman has been designated as the main centre for the organisation to supervise the vote. The Swiss-based IOM has been charged with organising the vote in 14 states: Australia, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Iran, Jordan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Syria, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the United States. Overseas voting will take place between January 28 and 30, with the use of indelible ink to avoid multiple voting. Iraqis living in other countries will be eligible to cast their ballots in any of the 14 states. Up to one million Iraqi citizens living abroad were likely to participate in the polls.