ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Early polling for the Iraqi parliamentary elections began on Sunday morning, with more than 1.3 million personnel from Iraq and the Kurdistan Region eligible to cast their ballots, following a day of electoral silence.

At 7:00 am local time, early elections began in Iraq where special forces and members of the security services, in addition to certain internally displaced persons (IDPs) and detainees in designated institutions, are set to cast their votes.

According to data from Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), more than 1,313,859 individuals are eligible to vote in the early elections, and more than 800 polling stations are designated across the country’s provinces.

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 rest of Iraq’s population is set to cast their ballots on November 11. Iraq's electoral body announced Saturday that preliminary results of the country's parliamentary elections will be released 24 hours after the close of voting.

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.