CEPPS/IFES Quarterly Report: January 01 – March 30, 2014

In the lead-up to the April 30, 2014 Council of Representatives (CoR) elections and the Iraq Kurdistan Region (IKR) Governorate Council Elections (GCE), the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) provided the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) with support in the automated voter registration (AVR) system, accreditation of observers, special needs voting (SNV), and out of country voting (OCV). A series of important workshops were implemented to target various aspects of election management, and the IFES team played a key support role in ensuring the IHEC's preparations for the elections progressed according to the operational timeline. The most notable achievements this quarter were the successful conclusion of the voter registration process, the initiating of the AVR process, and the introduction of the electronic cards. IFES played a significant role in all of these processes. Another achievement for this reporting period was the development of a tabulation software for the upcoming CoR elections. The IFES Database Development Advisor (DDA) worked closely with the Head of the IHEC's Data Management Section (DMS) to develop a software capable of parallel processing of three types of results forms: regular voting, SNV, and OCV. IFES also supported the IHEC in the successful accreditation of political entities (PEs) agents, observers, and local media by providing a two-session workshop on accreditation procedures in early March. Throughout the reporting period, IFES provided international stakeholders with key analytical information on the electoral context and process, including legal changes. IFES authored and released a briefing paper on the CoR elections explaining the electoral system and process, which serves as a primary comprehensive summary of the CoR elections. IFES also conducted a number of briefings on the CoR and IKR GC elections, including a presentation for USAID and US Embassy staff on Iraq's electoral system, the elections legal framework, preparations for the upcoming elections, and the AVR process. In addition, IFES issued three sub-grants supporting voter education efforts for the April 30 elections as part of its second round of sub-grants. The grants were issued to the Al-Manahil Association for Women Development working in Basrah, the Foundation of United for Relief and Sustainable Development (FUAD) working in Kirkuk, and the South Youth Organization working in Dhi Qar. The reporting period was marked by intense preparations for the upcoming CoR elections and IKR GCE scheduled for April 30, 2014. The CoR elections will be held for 328 seats in all of Iraq's 18 governorates. The newly-elected members of the CoR will then elect the President within 30 days from the first convening of the CoR. Out-of-country voting is scheduled to take place from April 29-30 in 19 countries. Special voting will take place on April 28 to accommodate voting for Iraqi Security Forces. According to the new electoral law – the CoR Elections Law No. 45 of 2013 passed by the CoR in November 2013 – an open list system will be used in this election. Under this electoral system, a voter may select both a political entity and a specific candidate within a list, or select a political entity only. The system will use the 18 governorates as the constituencies. The counting system has been changed slightly from the largest remainder method to the modified Sainte-Laguë method due to a ruling by the Supreme Court that stated the previous method discriminated against smaller parties. The use of the Sainte-Laguë method means that seats will be distributed among the candidates on the open list. The seats are first allocated to participating political entities based on the number of valid votes received. The candidates within each open list will then be re-ranked based on the number of votes obtained by each. The candidate who secures the highest number of votes within the open list shall be deemed the winner and so on for the remainder of candidates. Based on the women's quota system in the CoR—that women's representation in parliament should be 25 percent—a woman candidate is assured to be elected after each three winning men. Political entities must also ensure that 25% of candidates on their list are women. The candidate registration process was finalized at the start of the reporting period. On January 1, the IHEC extended the period for submitting political entities' and coalitions' list of candidates for the CoR elections from January 3 to January 9. Due to the security situation, the IHEC extended the submission of the candidate lists for the Anbar governorate until January 15. A total of 9,453 candidates were submitted by political entities. Of these, approximately 2,400 candidates were women. All candidate names were submitted to the Justice and Accountability Commission on January 20, 2014 for vetting. After the ballot