Americas

Home page

Americas

` UN chief commends Iraqi voters for "courage and determination"

23 April 2013 00:46 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon on Monday commended millions of Iraqi people for their " courage and determination" in exercising their constitutional right to vote during the nation's provincial elections, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

"The secretary-general congratulates the people of Iraq for participating in the Governorate Council elections," said a statement issued here by Ban's spokesperson.

The UN chief "applauds their courage and determination, which thwarted attempts to disrupt the electoral process through a vicious campaign of assassinations of candidates, threats to electoral staff and terrorist attacks," said the statement.

Iraqis headed Saturday to thousands of polling centers across the country to vote for their provincial leaders. An estimated 14 million potential voters elected 378 members of the councils out of 12 of Iraq's 18 provinces from more than 8,000 candidates.

In the statement, Ban commended the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) of Iraq for organizing the elections in a professional manner.

"The secretary-general encourages all political and electoral stakeholders to continue cooperating with all Iraqi electoral institutions throughout the rest of the electoral process, including the adjudication of formal complaints before results can be certified," said the statement.

Ban also called for actions to enable the "organization of elections in the remaining Governorates, including Anbar and Ninewa, without further delay."

The two unrest-hit Sunni Arab provinces listed as well as the disputed northern province of Kirkuk were not covered in the elections handled by IHEC.

"The turnout in the 12 participating provinces was 50 percent, which we consider as very high under the current circumstances," Miqdad al-Sharifi, head of the Commission's electoral department, told reporters.

The last provincial elections in Iraq were held in January 2009. The provincial elections are held every four years, according to the Iraqi constitution.