Iraqi election committee extends voting around Iraq

Iraq’s election commission decided today to extended voting by an additional hour around the country to deal with the large turnout of people seeking to elect a new parliament.

“We have issued an order to all centre in Iraq to extend the vote by one hour,” said the director General of the Independent Electoral Commission Adel al-Lami.

He added that there will not be an extension after 6pm (3am Irish time) but that “those who are in line can vote no matter how long it takes".

The decision to extend the closing time was the clearest indication so far that there was a large turnout at the country’s more than 33,000 polling stations.

There were reports that many Sunni Arab voters went to the polls after boycotting the last election on January 30.

Commission official Munthur Abdelamir said the decision was made at an emergency session of the commission “in order to allow citizens to vote because of the large turnout".

It was unclear when results would be released, but it took two weeks for the last elections. Some polling stations abroad were still open due to the time difference.