ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Iraq’s electoral body on Tuesday asserted that the upcoming federal parliamentary elections are to be “free from any political influence” and that they have enacted rigid guidelines to ensure the vote’s impartiality.

“The commission guarantees its legal independence in managing the electoral process, free from any political influence, through the basic principles of the electoral process,” Hassan Salman, legal advisor for Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), said in a statement.

His statement comes after an Iraqi court handed prison terms to four people for buying voter cards in Baghdad, with authorities seeking to clamp down on electoral violations ahead of the vote.

A set of rules and regulations is in place “by which the electoral process is monitored and identified for all errors that may occur, through the enactment of the international observers system, the local observers system, and the political parties’ agents system,” according to Salman.

Elections in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region typically have international observers and representatives of political parties stationed across the thousands of voting stations across the country on voting day.

Salman stressed that the IHEC operates “with high transparency and complete independence,” defending the credibility of elections in Iraq and noting that United Nations observers will be present to monitor the process.

Authorities in Iraq have long warned of the practice of buying citizens’ voter cards, the official document used for casting ballots, by offering money or promises of benefits. Iraqi law strictly prohibits and criminalizes such practices.

In mid-October, the IHEC announced the completion of all preparations for the November 11 parliamentary elections.

On Monday, an IHEC official told The New Region that the body has recorded over 540 violations so far, with most stemming from the placement of advertisements in prohibited areas and the use of public funds for campaigning.

More than 7,750 candidates are competing for 329 parliamentary seats under a proportional representation system, with penalties for electoral breaches ranging from 100,000 to 10 million Iraqi dinars.

Iraq’s last parliamentary elections, in October 2021, saw a historically low voter turnout.