ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Around 250,000 trees in Iraq have been damaged as a result of campaigning for the upcoming parliamentary elections, while regulations were upheld in the Kurdistan Region, an environmental organization reported on Sunday.

“Approximately 250,000 trees across 15 provinces were damaged due to candidates' election campaigns,” The Green Iraq Observatory said in a statement, noting that the damage included cutting down the trees, drilling holes in them, as well as breaking branches to hang election posters.

The organization asserted that while these violations were documented, there has been compliance with the regulations “in the three provinces of the [Kurdistan] Region,” where trees have been avoided when hanging election posters.

The environment monitor added that median strips in Baghdad have been “completely damaged,” as a result of installing campaign signs that “led to damage to the planted vegetation and green grass in those medians.”

“Everything that happened is the result of candidates' non-compliance with election campaign rules despite instructions issued by the [electoral] commission,” the statement asserted.

Aside from their environmental damage, a large number of locals have complained about the placement of candidate signs on bridges and sidewalks, as they tend to fall on vehicles and cause material damage.

Haider al-Seilawi, a Basra electoral official, told The New Region on Friday that the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) is not directly responsible for damage caused by election campaigns, stating that the matter falls “within the jurisdiction of civil courts.”

Nearly 400 violations of election campaign rules by candidates have been recorded since the start of the campaigning period on October 3rd, IHEC said on Sunday.

Iraq's parliamentary elections are set to be held on November 11. Nearly 30 million Iraqis are eligible to vote, including more than one million who will be eligible for the first time.