Elections in Iraq: April 30 Council of Representatives Elections Frequently Asked Questions

All 328 seats in the Council of Representatives will be up for election. The members of the Council of Representatives will elect the Iraqi President within 30 days from the first convening of the Council. Out-of-country voting is scheduled to take place from April 29-30 in 19 countries, and special voting will take place on April 28 to accommodate special need voting for Iraqi Security Forces. The electoral system used in this election is an open list system, where a voter may select both a political entity and a specific candidate within a list, or select a political entity only. A political entity is defined as a party registered under the Council of Representatives Elections Law No. 45 of 2013, an individual entity, or a combination of the two. The system uses the 18 governorates as the constituencies, and the counting system has been changed from the largest remainder method to the modified Sainte-Laguë method due to a ruling by the Supreme Court. Seven compensatory seats that were awarded at the national level in the previous Council of Representatives elections have been allocated to individual governorates. Eight seats remain reserved for minority groups at the national level, including five seats allocated to Christians in Baghdad, Ninewa, Kirkuk, Dohuk, and Erbil, one seat to Yezidis in Ninewa, one seat to Sabean Mandeans in Baghdad, and one seat for Shabaks in Ninewa. The total number of candidate women should be no less than 25 percent in the political entities lists, and women's representation in the Council of Representatives should be 25 percent. The Council of Representatives is the main elected body of Iraq, consisting of 328 members elected for four years, with two sessions in each annual term. The Council passes federal laws, oversees the executive, ratifies treaties, and approves nominations of certain officials. It also elects the President, who selects a Prime Minister from the majority coalition in the Council. The last elections for the Council of Representatives were held in March 2010. The legislative framework for this year's Council of Representatives elections is based on the Council of Representatives Elections Law No. 45 of 2013, passed by the Council and approved by the President on November 25, 2013. The law was published in the official Iraqi gazette on December 2, 2013. Additionally, the Independent High Electoral Commission issued regulations pertaining to the 2013 electoral process. To qualify to vote, a voter needs to prove that he or she is an Iraqi citizen, at least 18 years of age in the year of the election, and registered on the electoral rolls. The Independent High Electoral Commission is responsible for conducting the election, and the electoral process is overseen by the Supreme Court. The Commission has issued regulations pertaining to the electoral process, including rules on voter registration, polling station allocation, and campaign finance. The Commission has also established a system for counting votes, which will be distributed among the candidates on the open list. The candidates within each open list will be re-ranked based on the number of votes obtained by each, and the candidate who secures the highest number of votes within the open list will be deemed the winner.