Iraq declares success of security plan for 2025 elections
Shafaq News – Baghdad
Iraq’s Joint Operations Command (JOC) on Wednesday announced the success of its security plan to safeguard the country’s sixth 2025 parliamentary elections.
During a press conference in Baghdad, Lt. Gen. Qais al-Muhammadawi, Deputy Commander of the JOC and head of the Higher Security Committee for Elections, described the plan as efficient, emphasizing that international monitoring missions reported no curfews.
Developed months in advance, he explained, the plan ensured free movement for citizens across all provinces through close coordination with the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC).
Al-Muhammadawi underlined that security forces remained neutral throughout the process, with authorities recording 134 electoral violations related to campaigning or pressure outside polling centers but “no breaches” that compromised the integrity of the elections.
According to IHEC figures, voter turnout in elections exceeded 55%, with 12,003,143 voters participating out of 21,404,291 eligible citizens. Tuesday’s general vote recorded 10,898,327 ballots—about 54% of roughly 20 million registered voters—while the special vote on November 9 for security personnel reached 82.5%, with 1,084,289 voters out of 1,313,980 eligible participants.
Read more: Iraq’s 2025 poll: +21M voters, new law, fading monitors, and fierce bloc rivalries
Responding to Shafaq News correspondent about the election results, Omar Ahmed Mohammed, Chairman of the Board of Commissioners at the IHEC, affirmed that the Commission is “bound by the announced timeline” and will release the outcome accordingly. He further noted that under the election law, votes for any disqualified candidate “will be excluded from the list total.”
Mohammed also praised the “high level of organization and coordination” between the Commission and the Higher Security Committee, describing the elections as a model of professional cooperation.
