Baghdad: The turnout in Iraq’s snap parliamentary elections was recorded at 41 per cent, the country’s Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) said on Monday.
The commission said in a statement that more than 9 million out of over 24 million eligible voters had cast their ballots in the elections on Sunday, according to preliminary results.
After the remaining 6 per cent of the votes are counted, a slight increase in the national turnout is expected.
Judge Jalil Adnan Khalaf, Chairman of the Board of Commissioners at the electoral commission, said at a press conference late Sunday that the official results will be announced within 24 hours after the end of the voting.
Millions of Iraqis on Sunday headed to about 8,000 polling centres across the country to vote for 3,249 candidates vying for 329 seats in the upcoming Parliament.
The Iraqi parliamentary elections, originally scheduled for 2022, were advanced in response to months of protests against corruption, poor governance, and a lack of public services.
Meanwhile, a 69 per cent turnout was recorded in the early voting for Iraqi security forces, prisoners, and displaced people on Friday.
According to the IHEC, 821,800 voters cast their ballots out of 1,196,524, which is 69 per cent during the early voting.