Election Turnout Encouraging in Iraq

The turnout for the Iraq elections was 62 percent, officials said, despite terrorist attacks on that killed 38 voters.
Save
Election Turnout Encouraging in Iraq
Iraqi workers at the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) headquarters in Baghdad seal and store ballot boxes on Monday. (Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP/Getty Images)
3/9/2010
Updated:
10/1/2015

<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/iraq97537014.jpg" alt="Iraqi workers at the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) headquarters in Baghdad seal and store ballot boxes on Monday. (Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP/Getty Images)" title="Iraqi workers at the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) headquarters in Baghdad seal and store ballot boxes on Monday. (Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP/Getty Images)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1822304"/></a>
Iraqi workers at the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) headquarters in Baghdad seal and store ballot boxes on Monday. (Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP/Getty Images)
The turnout for the Iraq elections was 62 percent, officials said, despite terrorist attacks on that killed 38 voters.

Prime Minister Nouri Maliki’s State of Law Coalition is widely expected to win the most seats, however preliminary results are not due for several days.

The turnout figure was touted as a positive sign by Western governments, but is down from 75 percent in 2005. However, it is in line with voter turnout in other democracies. The U.S. turnout for the 2008 election was 61.7 percent, and the U.K. turnout for 2005 was 61.4 per cent.

“Today’s voting makes it clear that the future of Iraq belongs to the people of Iraq,” said U.S. President Barack Obama.