Iraq election had 70% turnout

Iraq’s Electoral Commission announced today that preliminary results showed that about 70% of the country’s 15.5 million registered voters took part in last week’s election for a new parliament.

The Commission said 10,893,413 of Iraq’s 15,556,8702 registered voters cast ballots, a turnout of 69.97%. Of the votes cast, 10,716,505 were valid at 29,437 polling stations.

The January 30 elections saw a turnout of 58%, while 63% participated in the October 15 constitutional referendum.

The commission said the results did not include results from early voting on December 12 for soldiers, hospital patients and prisoners. It also did not include the overseas vote.

According to the results, which still need to be certified, the highest turnout was in the predominantly Sunni Arab province of Salahuddin which had a turnout of 88.3%.

The lowest was recorded in western Anbar, the restive Sunni Arab province that is considered to be the heartland of the insurgency.

Baghdad province, where Sunni Arab parties have disputed the results, had a turnout of 63.39%.