UN promises to Iraq “never received”
The United Nations will provide assistance to ensure the success of the upcoming Iraqi elections, the UN Special Envoy Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said Tuesday.
“The United Nations is providing unprecedented support to Iraq in the upcoming legislative elections in a way that achieves a democratic process and fair and transparent results,” Plasschaert said during a press conference held today in Baghdad.
She added that the UN assistance for Iraq’s elections “will be the largest in the world and will deploy more monitoring teams.”
“The number of UN staff to be deployed is five times the number of staff members in the 2018 elections in Iraq, in addition to the participation of 180 international experts,” she said.
For more than a year, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations in Iraq has made significant efforts in promoting the Iraqi elections and has urged the international community to provide support.
Last August, the UN representative confirmed the completion of the contract with most members of the preparatory team who are sent to Baghdad to monitor the elections.
The electoral commission coordinated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to issue 71 invitations, including 52 invitations to Arab and foreign embassies to monitor the electoral process, as well as 19 international organizations.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Fouad Hussein sent a letter on February 11th asking the UN to send observers before the election.
The legislative elections, which were postponed in July, are the first democratic practice to be imposed by the Iraqi street in contravention of the constitutional deadline set every four years.
The Iraqi government earlier announced that the date of October 10th would not be postponed again.
The early parliamentary elections came in response to angry protest demands that swept most Iraqi cities in late 2019, killing more than 600 and injuring thousands of demonstrators.
