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Over half a million Iraqi voters in Iran: Official |
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Friday, 07 January 2005 |
Iran Focus
 Tehran, Jan. 07 - Iran announced there are at least half a million Iraqis presently in the country eligible to vote in the upcoming January 30th election in Iraq.
“More than 500,000 Iraqis residing in Iran can take part in (Iraq’s) January elections”, Ahmad Hosseini, the head of Foreign Citizens Office of the Interior Ministry, said on Wednesday.
Hosseini said that following an agreement with International Immigration Organisation, his organisation would oversee the vote.
Voting booths will be setup in Tehran, Qom, West-Azerbaijan, Kermanshah, Khuzistan, and Khorassan provinces, he added.
Any Iraqi born before December 31, 1986, with a valid identity card at registration offices will be able to vote in the booths according to Hosseini. He added that Iraqis, living abroad and not currently in possession of a valid identity card, were also eligible to vote provided that they could prove their status.
Many international experts have expressed anxiety over possible electoral fraud in the clerical state, cautioning that the Iranian regime was hoping to install a pro-Iran Shiite government through election rigging.
A major source of concern is the case of Iranian nationals who were born in Iraqi cities. Hosseini said that Iran had given them the green light to vote as Iraq recognises those born in its territory as Iraqis regardless of their origins. Many fear that certain Iranian agencies may exploit this case to effectively have Iranians posing as Iraqi-born individuals vote in the elections in Iraq.
Iranian authorities had in the past put the number of Iraqi nationals in Iran at just over 200,000. |
