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UN Delegation in Baghdad to Discuss Monitoring of Parliamentary Elections

An Iraqi man casts his vote at a polling station during the parliamentary election in Baghdad, Iraq May 12, 2018. (Reuters)
An Iraqi man casts his vote at a polling station during the parliamentary election in Baghdad, Iraq May 12, 2018. (Reuters)
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UN Delegation in Baghdad to Discuss Monitoring of Parliamentary Elections

An Iraqi man casts his vote at a polling station during the parliamentary election in Baghdad, Iraq May 12, 2018. (Reuters)
An Iraqi man casts his vote at a polling station during the parliamentary election in Baghdad, Iraq May 12, 2018. (Reuters)

A delegation of experts from the United Nations kicked off on Tuesday talks with Iraqi officials over their monitoring of parliamentary elections, which are scheduled for October.

Head of the Independent High Electoral Commission Jalil Khalaf Adnan received the experts, expressing his gratitude to the UN for its support of the commission.

The experts will provide technical and management support to organizers. They include experts in procedures and training, media, voter outreach, electoral administration, legal affairs, information technology, among others.

Adnan stressed that the commission was keen on holding the elections, underlining the importance of international monitors due to their “significant role in ensuring the transparency and fairness of the polls.”

Meanwhile, President Barham Salih announced that he has updated his biometric card ahead of polls, encouraging voters to follow suit.

Updating the card is necessary to hold transparent elections, he stressed in a tweet, saying it “guarantees the freedom of choice away from fraud.”

Head of the Hikma alliance, Ammar al-Hakim, expressed his support for international monitoring of the elections on condition that it refrains from meddling in electoral affairs.

Only the commission is entitled to interfere in the elections, he stated, while urging the need to hold the polls on time.

Former head of the Baghdad electoral district, Adil al-Lami told Asharq Al-Awsat that people needed to distinguish between the supervising and monitoring of the polls and technical assistance.

Overseeing entails direct involvement in proceedings, he explained, while monitoring observes whether the process is in line with international democratic practices.

In 2005, he continued, the UN was involved for strictly technical assistance.

Some political parties are now objecting to the overseeing of the elections, not their monitoring, because they fear that their voter fraud will be exposed, he added.

Lami said that the UN has yet to clearly announce whether it will be involved in a monitoring or supervisory capacity.

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Egypt Arrests Travel Agents for Illegally Facilitating Hajj Trips

Regular pilgrims performed the Hajj without significant difficulties. (Egyptian Ministry of Solidarity)
Regular pilgrims performed the Hajj without significant difficulties. (Egyptian Ministry of Solidarity)
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Egypt Arrests Travel Agents for Illegally Facilitating Hajj Trips

Regular pilgrims performed the Hajj without significant difficulties. (Egyptian Ministry of Solidarity)
Regular pilgrims performed the Hajj without significant difficulties. (Egyptian Ministry of Solidarity)

Egypt is prosecuting tourism companies for illegally facilitating pilgrims’ travel to Makkah, following reports about the death of hundreds of Egyptian pilgrims during this year’s Hajj season.
On Thursday, the Public Prosecution said it kicked off urgent investigations into tourism companies that arranged the travel of “irregular” pilgrims. It also detained, for four days, two of the defendants accused of “wrongfully causing the death in Alexandria of a woman because of the lack of the appropriate transportation and accommodation” during her travel”.
The Public Prosecution also detained an official of another tourism company. The man is facing a lawsuit submitted by the two sons of a woman who had died during the pilgrimage.
Last week, Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly ordered 16 tourism companies to be stripped of their licenses and referred their managers to the public prosecutor’s office for illegally facilitating pilgrims’ travel to Makkah.
The Parliament’s Tourism and Aviation Committee called for developing a new mechanism to grant visas of various types to Egyptians through coordination with the Saudi side and the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The committee convened on Wednesday and saw demands from a number of representatives to open investigations into the tourism companies that illegally facilitated the travel of pilgrims to Makkah, which led to a number of deaths due to the lack of appropriate services.
In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, MP Amani Al-Shaouli, Secretary of the Tourism and Aviation Committee, stressed that Parliament will follow up with the ministries of Tourism and Foreign Affairs to implement the committee’s recommendations and address any loopholes that are being exploited to violate the laws regulating the performance of Hajj, in coordination with the Saudi authorities.