High turnout among IDP voters in Duhok’s special vote

Shafaq News – Duhok

Displaced Iraqis in Duhok, Kurdistan Region, recorded a 77% turnout during Sunday’s special parliamentary voting, according to the province’s Directorate of Migration and Crisis Response (DMCR).

Diyan Jaafar, the directorate’s head, told Shafaq News that the process “ran well and smoothly” across 23 polling centers without any notable incidents, noting that the turnout figure was affected by the fact that some displaced voters remain on the Independent High Electoral Commission’s (IHEC) registration lists despite having left Iraq.

Jaafar added that many internally displaced persons (IDPs) intend to participate in Tuesday’s general elections in their hometowns but continue to face barriers to returning, particularly in Sinjar, Nineveh province, due to “economic hardship and slow reconstruction efforts in areas destroyed during the war against ISIS.”

Duhok and the wider Kurdistan Region host the largest number of IDPs in Iraq, including many Yazidis and other minorities who fled Sinjar and nearby areas in 2014 when ISIS seized large parts of northern Iraq.

About 26,000 IDPs were eligible to cast their ballots in Sunday’s special vote, which was held from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Read more: Iraq’s 2025 poll: +21M voters, new law, fading monitors, and fierce bloc rivalries