BSS :
Security forces, displaced people and prisoners cast ballots in an Iraqi legislative election Friday, two days before the rest of the country in a poll overshadowed by expectations of a low turnout.
In Baghdad, security was tight as dozens of army cadets wearing anti-Covid masks and gloves lined up at a polling station set up in a school, after voting got underway at 7:00 am (0400 GMT).
More than one million security force members are able to vote on Friday in the locations where they are stationed, because voting in their home regions-as other citizens will do-could prove challenging for those in distant locations.
But the 160,000 members of the powerful Hashed al-Shaabi are ineligible for early balloting. They have to wait until Sunday, drawing criticism from the network of mainly Iran-backed former paramilitary groups, after the electoral commission said Hashed officials had not provided lists of fighters for the special vote.
Iraq’s election is being held a year early in a rare concession to a youth-led protest movement that broke out in 2019 against a political class widely blamed for graft, unemployment and crumbling public services.
In recent months, dozens of the movement’s activists have fallen victim to a wave of assassinations and kidnappings that have been blamed on pro-Iranian groups.
Analysts say the same parties will continue to hold the balance of power after the vote.
More than 3,240 candidates are in the running.
