Tammuz shows its election monitoring report in press conference

On Monday, October 11, 2021, the Tammuz Organization for Social Development held a press conference in Baghdad to present its report on observing the elections of the Iraqi Parliament in 2021, in the presence of the partners from the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.

The conference, which was held at the Babylon Hotel, witnessed a significant presence of local and international media, figures interested in electoral affairs, besides several international observers.

The conference started with a speech by the President of the Tammuz Organization, Vian Sheikh Ali, in which she welcomed the guests and congratulated Iraq for the successful completion of the election process and thanked all the workers in the Tammuz organization’s observers network for the tremendous efforts to complete the monitoring process despite all the challenges you faced, and also thanked the partners from the Friedrich Ebert Foundation for their continuous support for civil society organizations in order to merge democracy and their attendance and follow-up to the Iraqi elections. The role of the Electoral Commission and the security forces in maintaining security and stability was appreciated.

Ms. Sarah, Director of the Iraq Office at the Friedrichshain Foundation, gave a welcoming speech in which she praised the efforts made by all parties to secure good elections, referring to the elections in Germany that took place last month and how they were not without some problems.

Later, the initial report specifics, of the entire electoral process, were introduced, which showed a definition of the organization, its mechanism of work in monitoring elections, the standards followed, the number of observers and how they were deployed, and the number of violations received, which numbered over 375 violations, which were classified with observations that reached positive and negative. The most prominent of which were identified with 12 positive observations And 20 negative observations, and then display models for the questions approved in the monitoring and the rates of answering them.

Based on the complete monitoring of the process, the organization presented a set of recommendations and suggestions to evaluate the electoral process, which is listed below:

• Making legal amendments and creating legislation regulating the electoral process in a more just and fair manner.

• The necessity of punishing violators of laws and regulations and limiting the recurrence of these violations and increasing them.

• The necessity of conducting a general census that proves the number of voters and their areas of residence, in order to achieve a better guarantee and an appropriate division of the distribution of voters, and to ensure that no citizen is deprived of his electoral right and to provide a solid electoral base coupled with a complete and accurate biometric registration for all citizens.

• Adopting a clear mechanism to increase women’s chances of obtaining more seats in the House of Representatives, and not counting the winning women with highly competitive votes among the winning women by benefiting from the quota system.

Activating the articles of the parties’ law that regulates their sources of funding, and obliges them to abide by the instructions of the Independent High Electoral Commission, in particular not to use state property for the benefit of any competing entity in the elections and to determine the sources of funding and electoral money, so that there is a reasonable balance between the contestants, and it also establishes controls for who may take part in electoral competition.

• Ensuring higher efficiency for all staff of the Electoral Commission, whether in terms of management level, impartiality, or daring to immediately end any abuse by any party, political entity, or candidate in order to protect the electoral process.

• The importance of the Electoral Commission’s dealings with solid monitoring networks under the principle of partnership and cooperation, and parties with an interest in the success of electoral and democratic processes in the country.

• The importance of raising the level of electoral awareness through intensive programs and campaigns from the High Electoral Commission, before an appropriate time for electoral operations.

• Political entities and candidates should raise the capabilities of their agents by training them on monitoring mechanisms and skills, and the method of submitting electoral complaints, as well as informing them of the election law.

• Relying on the biometric card exclusively as voter cards and ending the work of the electronic card.

• The importance of the state’s support for local monitoring networks and facilitating their work, as they are an important part of the electoral process and in order to perform their duty with perfection and the ability to monitor all polling stations.

At the conclusion of the conference, the President of Tammuz Organization, Vian Sheikh Ali, thanked the attendees for their attendance, especially the media figures, as Sheikh Ali stressed the media is an important partner for us and is always a race in covering activities that serve the public interest.

Media Office

Tammuz Organization for Social Development

12 October 2021