ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Iraq is set to hold early polling for its parliamentary elections on Sunday, with more than 1.3 million personnel from Iraq and the Kurdistan Region’s security institutions eligible to cast their ballots two days before the general vote.

Iraq is gearing up for a fresh cycle of parliamentary elections this week, with early polling set to be held on Sunday while the general vote will proceed on Tuesday. A total of 329 seats in the legislature up for grabs in the upcoming polls.

According to data revealed by Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), a total of 1,313,859 individuals across seven Iraqi and Kurdish security institutions can participate in Sunday’s early voting.

That figure includes 597,453 personnel from the Iraqi Ministry of Interior, 298,054 from the Ministry of Defense, 145,907 from the Kurdistan Region’s Ministry of Peshmerga, 128,127 from the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), 124,312 from the Kurdistan Region Ministry of Interior, 18,410 from the Counter-Terrorism Service, and 1,596 from the Border Ports Authority.

The early polling will commence at 7:00am local time on Sunday. The general elections will be held two days later on Tuesday.

More than 185,000 security personnel have been assigned to secure thousands of polling stations across Iraq for the upcoming parliamentary elections, according to the interior ministry.

More than 7,750 candidates are competing for 329 parliamentary seats under a proportional representation system.