Iraqis vote in snap parliamentary polls
Millions of Iraqis headed to cast their ballots on Sunday to elect a new Parliament amid hopes that it could solve the country's longstanding crisis.
Voters lined up to cast their ballots at 8,273 polling centres across Iraq, which opened their doors at 7 a.m., reports Xinhua news agency.
Voting will end at 6 p.m. and according to the country's Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), the results are expected to be announced in the next 24 hours.
Noting that the elections are the first carried out without imposing a curfew, as the security situation in the country has improved, Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi praised the elections as an important achievement, and called on Iraqis to participate in the polls to further change the country's situation themselves.
"I prefer to be the first voter to cast my ballot, and all of us have to work to bring about the change, and this is an opportunity to achieve that," he told reporters in the first minutes of the voting at a polling centre in a Baghdad school.
President Barham Salih cast his vote at a polling centre inside the Royal Tulip Al Rasheed Baghdad Hotel in the heavily fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad.
"This is a memorable day because early elections are a
popular demand and an opportunity for Iraq to move towards reform," Salih told reporters.
The Iraqi parliamentary
elections, originally scheduled for 2022, were advanced in response to months of protests against corruption and a lack of public services.