ELECTION UPDATE: SPECIAL VOTING, KIRKUK DECISION,

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BAGHDAD 004987

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/13/2015
TAGS: PNAT PGOV PTER KDEM IZ
SUBJECT: ELECTION UPDATE: SPECIAL VOTING, KIRKUK DECISION,
AND COMPLAINTS

REF: KIRKUK 00276

Classified By: Classified by Political Counselor Robert S. Ford for
reasons 1.4 (B) and (D).


1. (SBU) Summary. The election has officially begun
with special voting on December 12 for Iraqi Security
Forces (ISF),detainees, and hospital patients.
Logistically, the IECI is on track for a successful
election day on December 15. In other developments,
the IECI has publicly announced that -- to rectify its
earlier action that removed 81,000 names from the list
of voter rolls in Kirkuk -- it will allow all those
included in the deleted 81,000 to vote if they present
proper documentation at the polls (reftel). (See
septel for a report on an additional and inadvertent
omission of voter names which the IECI has resolved
without publicity.) Complaints to the IECI, primarily
about unfair campaigning practices, have officially
passed 100 and promise to soar above this number come
election time. End Summary.

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VOTING STARTED ON DECEMBER 12
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2. (SBU) Special voting for ISF, detainees, and
hospitalized voters took place on December 12; initial
reports so far have been positive. The IECI estimates
that over 250,000 voters comprised of 22,000 detainee
voters, 19,000 hospitalized voters, and over 200,000
ISF voters were eligible to vote. As of early evening
December 12, the IECI reports that almost all of the
polling centers scheduled to handle special voting
have opened. However, a handful of polling centers
did not open because the numbers of patients or ISF
had fallen below the threshold number required to open
a polling center. The IECI reports 87 percent turnout
of eligible detainee voters in Abu Ghraib, Camp Bucca,
and Suse.


3. (SBU) Ballots for these voters go to the Tally
Center in Baghdad, where they will be mixed in and
counted on December 16 with all other national ballots
from the International Zone.

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IECI CLARIFIES KIRKUK POLICY ON VOTER ROLLS
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4. (U) On December 11, the IECI released a press
statement explaining its final decision to delete
81,000 from the Kirkuk voter rolls (reftel) and its
proposed remedy. This clarification followed a series
of reports (including previous IECI press releases)
that the IECI had removed between 45,000 and 86,000
registered voters from the rolls. The latest
statement reports that after investigating unusual
increases in Kirkuk registration, the IECI found that
many of the suspicious Kirkuk registration forms
carried the same signature and cited the exact same
identity document, while other registration forms
lacked signatures as well as sufficient proof of
identity. This discovery led to the decision to
strike all the names. In the December 11 statement,
the IECI listed the centers that had been affected by
this deletion and stated that voters who have been
erroneously deleted from these lists would still be
able to vote on December 15 if they bring their copy
of the registration form (otherwise known as Form 91)
as well as an ID. If the potential voter does not
have the proof of registration, then two forms of ID
will be required. The IECI is undertaking a public
affairs campaign to inform the voters of Kirkuk of
this remedy. (Comment: giving voters the chance to
bring two identity documents and vote will open the
process up to complaints from the Arabs and Turkmen
who will suspect Kurdish fraud. Striking all 80,000
names would have infuriated the Kurds. End Comment.)


5. (C) In other news, the IECI reports that it has
corrected a general voter roll glitch that threatened
to delete over 600,000 eligible voters from the voter
rolls across Iraq. This mistake, detected by IECI
Kirkuk, caused much tension by those who perceived the
error to be directed at the Kurdish community.
Chairman Izadin al-Mohammady told Poloff on December
13 that IECI representatives and Commissioners,
including International Commissioner Craig Jenness,
met with President of the Kurdistan Regional government
Ma'sud Barzani earlier that day to explain this error
and smooth over any sensitivities (septel).

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COMPLAINTS
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6. (SBU) On December 11, Michael Clegg from the
International Elections Assistance Team (IEAT) briefed
the international community about the complaint
process. Complaints can be delivered in one of three
ways: via email, at polling centers during voting day,
and at IECI offices throughout the country. All
complaints are forwarded to the complaints office at
IECI headquarters in Baghdad, which will immediately
triage the complaint into one of two categories: red
or green. Red complaints are those which if shown to
be valid, could affect the outcome of the elections.


7. (SBU) Once the complaints are triaged, they are
assigned to a lawyer case officer who is responsible
for the investigation and resolution of the complaint.
When enough evidence is gathered to make a
recommendation, the complaint and recommendation are
forwarded to the Board who by law makes the final
decision.


8. (C) During the January 30 elections, the IECI
received a total of 400-450 complaints. Of those
complaints, roughly six were red complaints, and over
two hundred were related to Out-of-Country voting.
During the October 15 referendum, approximately 140
complaints were received, with just a few red
complaints. However, even with less than 200, the
IECI has only just now finished processing all
complaints relating to the referendum. On December
11, Poloff talked with Ali al-Jabr, director of the
Complaints Office, to understand why processing
complaints for the referendum took almost two months.
Jabr noted that much of the bottleneck lies with the
Board, which requires a quorum to make a decision on
each complaint. Jabr did note, however, that red
complaints (which could potentially affect when
election results are announced) are often swiftly
resolved.


9. (C) Jabr reported that the IECI is expecting
between 1000 and 2000 complaints for this election,
and has been preparing accordingly. Six new lawyers
from the Baghdad Bar Association have been contracted
to assist the incumbent five lawyers with workload,
and four members of the international team will now be
supervising triage and investigation teams. Jabr also
told Poloff that the internal complaints office
processes had been improved, but the largest hurdle
would still be Commissioner decision-making.


8. (C) Over 100 complaints had been received to date
relating to the elections. The majority of these
complaints relate to campaigning practices. On
December 8, PolOff spoke with Chief Electoral Officer
Adil Allami to urge quick resolution of and response
to incoming complaints. PolOffs repeated this message
to IECI Chairman Izadin al-Mohammady on December 12.
Al-Mohammady told PolOffs that very few of the
complaints were accompanied by sufficient evidence to
merit action. Many complaints, he said, were
descriptions of violations without an indication of
who was promoting such action. During this meeting,
PolOffs stressed to the Chairman the importance of
responding quickly and comprehensively to
complainants, even if no action would be taken.

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COMMENTS
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7. (SBU) With only two days to go, all IECI
commissioners save the OCV coordinator are now back in
the country to prepare for the elections. Logistics
planning is still going according to schedule, and
final adjustments are being made to ensure everything
is ready for December 15. Meanwhile, the
international team as well as the Complaints Office
are waiting to see how election day complaints will
affect the timing of the announcement of results. The
press release deleting Kirkuk voter names from the
rolls promises to remain a contentious issue with both
Turks and Kurds, and most likely will result in some
complaints come election day.


KHALILZAD
KHALILZAD