Polls close across Iraq in first vote since victory over IS</s>(CNN) Iraqis voted Saturday in their first parliamentary elections since the defeat of ISIS last year, with the economy, jobs, security and corruption high on the list of voters' concerns as the country seeks to rebuild after years of conflict.

Nearly 7,000 candidates contested 329 seats in the parliament, of which a quarter must go to women . More than 24 million Iraqis registered to vote, according to Iraq's electoral commission, and more than 55,000 polling stations opened across the country.

According to an update from the Iraqi Electoral Commission on Iraqi state TV Al Iraqiya, 44% of eligible voters turned out for the election.

Polls closed at 6 p.m. local time. It could be days before the winners are announced.

"Our dear people have been able to freely and safely cast their votes to choose their representatives," Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said in a statement after polls closed. "I salute our heroic forces, government agencies, state institutions, the media, and all those involved in the success of the electoral process."

However, four civilians were killed in an explosion on their way to vote in the Haweja area just west of Kirkuk on Saturday. A police official said the attack deliberately targeted civilians heading to the polling stations.

As a result, security officials implemented a curfew from midnight to 6 a.m. Sunday in the province of Kirkuk.

Shortly before the polls closed, State of Law Coalition, a rival party headed by former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, expressed concern that "some political forces have resorted to the use of various types of threats and intimidations, and threats to use weapons against polling stations and voters in order to influence their choices and vote for the candidates of some who already are realizing their early defeat."

Under the power-sharing system installed after the 2003 US-led invasion, the position of prime minister is reserved for a Shiite.

Abadi, who's been in power since 2014, is hoping to win back the top job. But the country's Shiite bloc has splintered into five major coalitions, making it hard to predict which will come out on top.

Whoever wins will still need to reach out to other blocs, including Sunni and Kurdish coalitions, to form a governing alliance.

The next prime minister will then face the daunting task of stabilizing a nation scarred by ISIS' rise and still plagued by sectarian division at a critical juncture in its history.

Followers of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr carry a huge Iraqi flag as they take part in a campaign rally in Baghdad on May 4.

The US Secretary of State's office sent a congratulatory note to the Iraqi people, saying: "The United States stands ready to partner with Iraqi leaders as we continue to build a long-term relationship of cooperation and friendship between our two nations -- a strategic partnership based on the Strategic Framework Agreement that will contribute to stability in the region and growing peace and prosperity in Iraq."

Abadi credited with defeating ISIS

Abadi, who heads the Nasr, or Victory, coalition, is widely credited in Iraq with helping to reconstruct the Iraqi Army and defeat ISIS. He hoped to capitalize on that support even as many voters lamented a lack of improvement in their daily lives.

Ahead of the election, Abadi sought to broaden his coalition to bring in significant Sunni figures and avoid overt sectarianism -- and his was the only coalition running in all 18 of Iraq's provinces. He cast his vote Saturday in the Baghdad neighborhood where he was born.

During the war against ISIS, Abadi succeeded in balancing the interests of Iraq's powerful neighbor, Iran, and the United States, as well as significantly improving relations with Saudi Arabia and boosting Iraq's diplomatic standing overall.

Baghdad also regained control of disputed oil-rich fields in Kirkuk last year following a contentious Kurdish independence referendum in September . While that has not endeared Abadi to many Kurds, outside the Kurdish region he is credited with taking a strong position and reasserting central government control without major bloodshed.

But many Iraqis are also frustrated by the limited change they've seen in their daily lives.

Among their complaints are a dearth of job opportunities, a struggling economy and crumbling infrastructure, with frequent power cuts. They also lament poor government services and slow reconstruction in areas such as Tikrit, Falluja and Mosul that were devastated in the battle against ISIS.

Corruption, another major issue, is blamed by many Iraqis for their country's failure to translate the wealth from its natural resources into a better life for all its citizens.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi talks during a campaign rally in the holy city of Najaf on May 3.

Chief rivals

Abadi's chief rivals included Maliki, who leads the State of Law coalition.

During his two terms in power, from 2006 to 2014, Maliki was widely seen as having alienated a large part of the Sunni population and by doing so having prepared the ground for the rise of ISIS. But he maintains significant support and has close ties to Iran.

Nuri al-Maliki speaks during a tribal gathering on May 13, 2017, in Najaf.

Another significant contender was Hadi al-Amiri, who heads the Fatah (Conquest) coalition and also has strong links with Tehran, having spent much of his youth in exile in Iran and fought on the side of the Iranians in the Iran-Iraq War.

Amiri helped command the Hashd al Shaabi, or Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) -- the largely Shiite, pro-Iranian paramilitary force that supported the Iraqi Army in the fight against ISIS.

Hadi al-Amiri, leader of the Fatah Alliance, a coalition of Iranian-supported militia groups, speaks during a campaign rally in Baghdad on May 7.

While the PMU played a vital role in defeating ISIS, some groups under its umbrella were accused of committing sectarian abuses against Sunnis and Kurds, an allegation the PMU denied.

Last week, Iraq's highest Shiite religious authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, urged voters not to reelect "corrupt" lawmakers and warned that "foreign agendas" could undermine the country's ability to carry out a free and fair vote.

In a televised statement delivered by his representative after Friday prayers, al-Sistani urged voters to learn from the past. "Avoid falling into the trap of those who are corrupt and those who have failed, whether they have been tried or not," he said.

It was al-Sistani's call for Iraqis to take up arms against ISIS in 2014 that led to the creation of the Hashd al Shaabi force, which reports directly to the Prime Minister's office.

An Iraqi traffic policeman prepares to vote in Baghdad on May 10. Members of the security forces cast ballots before other voters.

Security fears

Security remained a big issue as Iraqis headed to the polls.

A statement released Friday by the Prime Minister's office urged voters to "choose the best for Iraq and for a brighter future" while also seeking to reassure them that they would be safe.

"We have ordered our heroic security forces to protect the electoral process, and to protect the voters and polling stations, and they are capable of protecting you," it said.

"Our heroic forces have achieved another victory by protecting the democratic process," Abadi said after the elections.

One candidate -- a college professor named Farouq Zarzour -- was assassinated this week in a town near Mosul. He was running for parliament as part of the National Coalition led by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.

A spokesman for ISIS also urged attacks against polling stations and voters in an audio message released last month.</s>NAJAF, Iraq -- Iraqis on Saturday voted in their first national election since the Islamic State upended the political and social order in the country, casting ballots that will help determine how Iraq's next government leans in a region increasingly marked by global rivalries.

Nearly 7,000 candidates, representing conservative, Islamist, liberal, secular, communist and military political streams, are vying for 329 seats in Iraq's parliament and for the upper hand in electing the nation's next prime minister and president.

Saturday's poll was devoid of the usual terrorist violence that has marred previous Iraqi elections, and there were few reports of irregularities. But calls to boycott the contest over a lack of substantive policy debate appeared to resonate with voters, and turnout was low. Iraq's election commission said late Saturday that only 44 percent of the 22 million eligible voters participated -- a steep decline from 62 percent in both 2014 and 2010.

The United States, Iran and Saudi Arabia will be closely watching the results, which are expected to be announced Monday. Over the past four years, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has maintained a delicate balance between Iranian and U.S. interests in his country while nourishing a reopening of political and economic ties with the Saudi monarchy.

Some of his chief opponents are closely aligned with Iran, setting up the possibility that Iraq could firmly place itself in Tehran's camp at a time when Washington and Riyadh have dramatically stepped up their isolation of Iran. Last week, Iraqi politicians said they were concerned that the United States' cancellation of the Iran nuclear deal could push Iran to impose itself more forcefully in Iraq.

"The international and regional pressure on Iran and on Shiites makes Shiites retrench more to defend themselves," said Saad al-Mutalibi, who's running on a ticket led by former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who is close to Iran and is appealing to the Shiite identity politics that have dominated recent elections. "The anti-U.S. camp is getting stronger day by day because of U.S. mistakes."

But in Iraq's polling places, voters said their concerns are confined to their neighborhoods, towns and cities: They spoke of needing jobs, security and stability without the spasms of violence and sectarian hatred that they have endured for more than a decade since the U.S. invasion in 2003.

"We are looking for services and security and most importantly job opportunities for all us young people," said Zaid Sahib, 25. "We are the priority."

Early Saturday, al-Abadi's office released photos of him being patted down by a security officer outside a polling place in his home district in Baghdad, smiling broadly before heading inside to vote.

It was a striking contrast with his opponents and other members of Iraq's political elite who voted in the swank al-Rashid Hotel inside Baghdad's heavily guarded Green Zone. Al-Abadi's office has repeatedly sought to portray the prime minister as an Iraqi everyman who eschews the elitist trappings of power.

His main opponents include his predecessor, al-Maliki, and Hadi al-Ameri, the head of one of Iraq's most powerful Shiite militias whose popularity soared for his role in fighting the Islamic State group. Both al-Maliki and al-Ameri are closer to Iran than al-Abadi and have criticized the sitting prime minister for his pro-U.S. stances.

None of the candidates is expected to win an outright majority and probably will need to enter into postelection coalitions to have enough votes to elect a prime minister -- a process that has taken months in recent elections.

Iraq's most senior Shiite cleric spoke out on the issue of voter participation Saturday afternoon, encouraging Iraqis to vote "to prevent the arrival of a corrupt parliament."

"The lack of participation will give the opportunity for others to reach parliament and they will be very far from the aspirations of the people," said Sheikh Abdul-Mahdi al-Karbalai, the representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, on local Iraqi television from Karbala. Al-Sistani has encouraged Iraqis to vote into power Saturday a new political class to combat corruption.

For those who did attempt to vote, some in Baghdad complained of voting irregularities at polling stations linked to a new electronic system implemented for the first time this year in an effort to reduce fraud.

Al-Maliki said he was aware of "violations" at some polling stations and complained the process lacked proper oversight.

"We are not reassured," he said.

Thamer Aref, 45, along with his wife and daughter were turned away from a polling station north of central Baghdad.

Aref had turned in his old voter card months ago for the biometric identification card required by the new system. However, Aref's biometric card wasn't ready by Saturday and, with neither card, the polling station did not allow him to cast a ballot.

"I lost my right to vote," he said.

Amira Muhammed, the supervisor of a polling station in the Azamiyah neighborhood in Baghdad, said some people couldn't vote because they did not pick up their new biometric ID cards in time.

"The problem is not with us," she said.

"There were some problems with the electronic equipment due to misuse by some employees," Hazem al-Ridini said.

Iraq's next leader faces a slew of challenges stemming from the ruinous occupation of the Islamic State group and the nearly four-year war to expel the militants. More than 2 million Iraqis remain displaced from cities overwhelmingly damaged by the fighting. Some of them have been prevented from returning to their homes by a community that has branded them Islamic State sympathizers, effectively creating a pariah class of people with nowhere to turn.

Iraq's government has estimated that it needs $80 billion to restore the cities damaged by the combat and has relied heavily on donations from the international community to raise the funds. Iraq's coffers have been drained by a combination of wartime spending and oil prices that have fallen over the past three years.

Many of the candidates in Saturday's elections said they will work to make Iraq's economy less dependent on oil revenue while encouraging foreign investment and supporting the growth of a private sector to create new jobs. All of that will be underpinned by a systematic effort to eradicate the pervasive corruption that has plagued Iraq's public sector.

The result of Saturday's vote likely will play a role in whether U.S. forces maintain a presence in Iraq. Al-Abadi strongly supports keeping U.S. troops to advise and train Iraq's military and police while his opponents say they want to significantly reduce and regulate the activities of those forces.

This year's election has been characterized by mixed feelings over the prospects of change. Some voters, buoyed by al-Abadi's announcement of the defeat of the Islamic State in December, see this vote as the beginning of a historic era in Iraq. Candidates eschewed traditional sectarian political rhetoric for a more conciliatory message of nationalism and inclusivity.

Al-Abadi's ticket, Nasr, or Victory, embraced this change most ardently, leading many analysts and experts to predict that he likely will win the most seats -- but not quite enough to secure anything close to a majority. The centrist political mood was embraced even by traditionally right-wing groups like the pro-Iran Shiite militias running under a large coalition called Fatah, or Conquest, led by al-Ameri.

It also has been a period of reinvention. Cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, once one of the most ardent opponents of the U.S. occupation and who commands a sizable militia, has emerged as one of Iraq's most enthusiastic reformists, calling on Iran to step back from Iraqi internal affairs.

His electoral list, which includes a coalition with the Iraqi Communist Party, is a roster of first-time candidates -- a risky gamble for a movement that holds a significant bloc of seats in parliament.

In his hometown of Najaf, Sadr's political gambit did not impress a group of people who held small demonstrations calling for a boycott of the election.

Ahmed Riyad and Amir Abed emerged from a polling station in a middle school with their fingers clean, missing the trademark purple ink used to indicate that a vote has been cast. Abed said he had intended to spoil his ballot in protest, but Iraq's new electronic voting system had thwarted his demonstration.

Riyad said he was there to support his friend and was formally refraining from the entire process.

"We haven't seen change, and voting will not bring change," said Abed, 23, a construction worker. "Even if the old faces are voted out, even worse new faces will replace them."

At another polling place, Hasna Hashim, 70, smiled and held up her ink-stained finger as her son gently pushed her wheelchair forward. She bragged that she had used the same wheelchair to vote in every election since 2005, when Iraq began having national votes.

She said she voted for al-Ameri's ticket, saying he had led the fight against the Islamic State and that she believed in him to provide the security she craves.

"He's our father," she said. "He's the one we depend on, only after God."

Her son, Salam Fadel, 38, grinned as his mother spoke.

He had voted for a secular ticket called Tamadon, or Civilized Coalition.

"We tried the Islamists," he said. "And that hasn't done us any good."

Information for this article was contributed by Tamer El-Ghobashy and Mustafa Salim of The Washington Post; by Khalid Al-Ansary and Lin Noueihed of Bloomberg News; and by Philip Issa, Qassim Abdul-Zahra, Balint Szlanko and Salar Salim of The Associated Press.</s>This female Iraqi MP says she's been threatened because of her work.

Dr Hanan al-Fatlawi explains the issues facing voters, as they choose 329 members for the Council of Representatives.</s>The parliament, which is the Council of Representatives, is the main legislative body in the country. It has 329 seats, nine of which are reserved for representatives of ethnic and religious minorities, including five seats for Christians. The remaining 320 seats are distributed among 18 Iraqi provinces.

In line with the Iraqi legislation, one member of the parliament represents 100,000 people, and women should occupy 25 percent of all seats.

READ MORE: Iraqi Forces Foil Terror Attack During First Elections Since Daesh Defeat — MP

A nominee to the Council of Representatives must be an Iraqi citizen with a college education and no involvement in a crime. The law does not allow members of the Council of Representatives to simultaneously occupy another official position or engage in business activities.

​The election is held every four years. The new lawmakers are elected no later than 45 days before the previous parliament completes its duties. The vote for a lawmaker is cast by direct secret ballot on the single day of universal voting designated by order of the Presidential Council.

READ MORE: Iraqi Parliamentary Vote Guided by Issues, Not Sectarianism

The responsibility for organizing elections rests with the Supreme Independent Election Commission (SIEC) of Iraq.

The election is based on a proportionate system. Once the election threshold is met, mandates are distributed among the lists of candidates in proportion to the votes cast for them. Iraqis living abroad also have the right to vote.

In order to prevent to prevent the election tampering, automatic voter registration (AVR) was introduced.

In 2013, the authorities introduced a new method of distributing mandates – the Sainte-Lague method. It increases the chances that small parties will be elected to the parliament. According to this method, seats are distributed consecutively and are occupied by those who have a higher coefficient calculated on the basis of a formula.

READ MORE: US Is Responsible for Discord in Iraq — Iraqi Ex-Defense Minister

Within 30 days since the start of the first session, members of the Council of Representatives must choose a new president of the country among its members. In the next 15 days, the parliamentary bloc that won the elections should submit for the approval of the president a candidate for the position of the prime minister.

​The Council of Representatives approves the national budget, monitors the activities of the executive, and exercises certain other powers, for instance, approving the heads of the Federal Court of Appeal, the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Department of Court Inspections, and the chief of the Army General Staff. It also ratifies international agreements. By an absolute majority vote, the Council of Representatives can pass a no-confidence motion against any government minister and relieve the president of his duties before his term expires.</s>IRAQ – Iraqis are going to the polls Saturday to vote in their first parliamentary elections since the defeat of ISIS last year, with the economy, jobs, security and corruption high on the list of voters’ concerns as the country seeks to rebuild after years of conflict.

Nearly 7,000 candidates are contesting 329 seats in the parliament, of which a quarter must go to women. More than 24 million Iraqis have registered to vote, according to Iraq’s electoral commission, with more than 55,000 polling stations open across the country.

Under the power-sharing system brought in after the 2003 US-led invasion, the position of prime minister is reserved for a Shiite.

Incumbent Haider al-Abadi, who’s been in power since 2014, is hoping to win back the top job. But the country’s Shiite bloc has splintered into five major coalitions, making it hard to predict which will come out on top.

Whoever wins will still need to reach out to other blocs, including Sunni and Kurdish coalitions, to form a governing alliance.

The next prime minister will then face the daunting task of stabilizing a nation scarred by ISIS’ rise and still plagued by sectarian division at a critical juncture in its history.

Abadi, who heads the Nasr, or Victory, coalition, is widely credited in Iraq with helping to reconstruct the Iraqi Army and defeat ISIS. He will hope to capitalize on that support even as many voters lament a lack of improvement in their daily lives.

Ahead of the election, Abadi sought to broaden his coalition to bring in significant Sunni figures and avoid overt sectarianism — and his is the only coalition running in all 18 of Iraq’s provinces. He cast his vote Saturday in the Baghdad neighborhood where he was born.

During the war against ISIS, Abadi succeeded in balancing the interests of Iraq’s powerful neighbor, Iran, and the United States, as well as significantly improving relations with Saudi Arabia and boosting Iraq’s diplomatic standing overall.

Baghdad also regained control of disputed oil-rich fields in Kirkuk last year following a contentious Kurdish independence referendum in September. While that has not endeared Abadi to many Kurds, outside the Kurdish region he is credited with taking a strong position and reasserting central government control without major bloodshed.

But many Iraqis are also frustrated by the limited change they’ve seen in their daily lives.

Among their complaints are a dearth of job opportunities, a struggling economy and crumbling infrastructure, with frequent power cuts. They also lament poor government services and slow reconstruction in areas such as Tikrit, Falluja and Mosul that were devastated in the battle against ISIS.

Corruption is another major issue, blamed by many Iraqis for their country’s failure to translate the wealth from its natural resources into a better life for all its citizens.

Abadi’s chief rivals include former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who leads the State of Law coalition.

During his two terms in power, from 2006 to 2014, Maliki was widely seen as having alienated a large part of the Sunni population and by doing so having prepared the ground for the rise of ISIS. But he maintains significant support and has close ties to Iran.

Another significant contender is Hadi al-Amiri, who heads the Fatah (Conquest) coalition and also has strong links with Tehran, having spent much of his youth in exile in Iran and fought on the side of the Iranians in the Iran-Iraq War.

Amiri helped command the Hashd al Shaabi, or Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) — the largely Shiite, pro-Iranian paramilitary force that supported the Iraqi Army in the fight against ISIS.

While the PMU played a vital role in defeating ISIS, some groups under its umbrella were accused of committing sectarian abuses against Sunnis and Kurds, an allegation the PMU denied.

Last week, Iraq’s highest Shiite religious authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, urged voters not to reelect “corrupt” lawmakers and warned that “foreign agendas” could undermine the country’s ability to carry out a free and fair vote.

In a televised statement delivered by his representative after Friday prayers, al-Sistani urged voters to learn from the past. “Avoid falling into the trap of those who are corrupt and those who have failed, whether they have been tried or not,” he said.

It was al-Sistani’s call for Iraqis to take up arms against ISIS in 2014 that led to the creation of the Hashd al Shaabi force, which reports directly to the Prime Minister’s office.

There’s little doubt security remains a big issue as Iraq goes to the polls.

A statement released Friday by the Prime Minister’s office urged voters to “choose the best for Iraq and for a brighter future” while also seeking to reassure them that they would be safe.

“We have ordered our heroic security forces to protect the electoral process, and to protect the voters and polling stations, and they are capable of protecting you,” it said.

One candidate — a college professor named Farouq Zarzour — was assassinated this week in a town near Mosul. He was running for parliament as part of the National Coalition led by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.

A spokesman for ISIS also urged attacks against polling stations and voters in an audio message released last month.

Abadi may have declared the defeat of ISIS last September but the extremist group remains a threat, with a continued presence in small pockets of the country and sleeper cells elsewhere.</s>Iraqis head to the polls on Saturday for parliamentary elections.

After the ballot, the 329 members of parliament elected from party lists will be tasked with forming a government and electing a prime minister and president.

Following the 2003 US-led invasion and the fall of Saddam Hussein, Iraq held its first general election in January 2005, selecting a national assembly tasked with drafting a new constitution.

It then held parliamentary elections in December 2005, with two subsequent polls in 2010 and 2014.

Nearly 24.5 million of Iraq’s roughly 38 million people are registered to vote. They are spread out across 18 provinces.

Voters can cast their ballots at 8,959 polling stations across the country, all of which are equipped for electronic voting.

The 285,564 internal refugees eligible to vote can do so in one of 166 polling stations in 70 camps spread across eight provinces in the country.

Voters will select party lists and seats will be divided up according to the number of votes each list secures.

Polling for Iraq’s roughly one million security force personnel and the one million voters living abroad was held ahead of the main election day.

There are 6,990 candidates, including 2,011 women, set to run in the polls.

They will be competing for 329 seats, including nine reserved for minorities — Christians, Shabaks, Yazidis, Mandeans and Fayli Kurds — and 83 for women.

Candidates, selected based on their position in the party, will be elected to four-year terms in parliament.

There are 87 party lists in this year’s election.

The main lists are as follows:

This year, for the first time since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, the ranks of the executed leader’s oldest opponents, the Shiite Dawa Party, are divided.

Abadi, a key figure in the Dawa Party, has put together a list composed largely of civil society personalities that cross sectarian lines.

– CONQUEST ALLIANCE, led by Hadi al-Ameri, head of the Badr organisation and a leader of the mostly Shiite Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary units, which played a key role in rolling back Islamic State (IS) group jihadists.

His candidates officially quit their military roles to run for office.

This list relies principally on the Dawa Party, which Maliki heads.

But while it is popular with public servants hired under his mandate, the list suffers from criticisms aimed at Maliki because IS seized one-third of the country under his watch.

It includes mostly secular groups including the Iraqi Communist Party and Istiqama (Arabic for righteousness), a party of technocrats backed by Sadr, who suspended his Ahrar bloc and called on his 33 ministers not to run in the polls.

– SUNNIS appear on several lists. The main list, “The National Alliance”, is led by Vice President Iyad Allawi — a Shiite who presents himself as secular — and Sunni head of parliament Salim al-Juburi.

Weakened after three years of IS rule, Sunnis could be the biggest losers in this year’s elections.

– KURDS will head to polls with divided ranks to fill their northern autonomous region’s 46 seats, two of which are reserved for Christians.

The main Kurdish parties are the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Kurdistan Patriotic Union (PUK).

There are also three opposition parties: the main Jamaa Islamiya, the newly created New Generation movement, and Goran (Kurdish for change).</s>
• 6,990 candidates from 87 parties are fighting for 329 seats
• 25 percent or 83 of the assembly’s seats are reserved for women candidates
• Security forces are on alert following threats from ISIS militants
• The main contenders are split among Sunni, Shia and Kurdish lists

Nearly 7,000 parliamentary hopefuls from 87 parties are eyeing up the 329-member Council of Representatives of Iraq assembly.

Polls around the country opened earlier today at 5am BST, and will stay open until 4pm BST later today.

The election is being touted as a crucial test of strength for the Shia-led Government which has seen widespread support for fighting ISIS militants.

National security, top-level corruption and outside influence from the West and Iran are expected to play a major role in voting moods today.

The main candidate lists are divided up between the Shia, Sunni and Kurdish coalitions, with the Shia playing a dominant role in Iraqi politics since 2005.

Officials results will be announced to the public within 48 hours of the polls closing and authorities expect a high turnout today.

Here are the latest Iraq election 2018 updates. All times in BST.</s>LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Women standing for election in Iraq have faced an unprecedented deluge of abuse and intimidation - including the publication of sex tapes - to scare them away from politics, the United Nations, candidates and activists said ahead of Saturday’s vote.

Two sex tapes purporting to feature women MPs have been posted on social media, according to Alice Walpole, a senior official in the U.N.’s office in Iraq.

Both women said the tapes were fake but one of them, Intidhar Ahmed Jassim, withdrew from the election last month.

Another candidate came under fire for an outfit she wore after a video from her mobile phone was put on social media after it was stolen.

Posters of women candidates have also been vandalized, according to activists, with beards and moustaches drawn on their faces in some cases.

Rasha Al-Soltani, a candidate in Baghdad, said harassment of all women in public life had become a problem, but politicians were particularly at risk.

“I can’t count the number of cases of online abuse I’ve come across,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The United Nations has branded the harassment “alarming” with the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq this week launching a campaign called #WhyNot or #Shakobeha to encourage women into politics which will run beyond the election.

The poll is the first in Iraq since the defeat of Islamic State militants who seized a swathe of the country in 2014.

Nearly 30 percent of more than 7,000 candidates are women. Under electoral law a quarter of parliament’s 329 seats must be held by women.

Women’s rights activist Hanaa Edwar said “electronic armies” were taking to social media to denigrate women candidates, using misogynist language, including calling them “whores”.

“People have been attacking their (campaign) posters and defaming them on social media. It has hurt their families’ honor and dignity,” she said by phone.

“The attacks are obviously to (make) women withdraw from political life. It’s disgusting. This is not our tradition in Iraq.”

She criticized political parties for failing to defend their own candidates.

Walpole, the Deputy U.N. Special Representative for Iraq, urged women to press on despite the intimidation.

She said there were some “fantastic role models” running for office but her office had received reports of around 10 attacks against female candidates.

“Women are moving in larger numbers into the political sphere. Most of the electorate is absolutely open to that ... but I think there are a few who are intimidated by it,” she said.</s>Nearly 24.5 million of Iraq's roughly 38 million people are registered to vote. They are spread out across 18 provinces.

Voters can cast their ballots at 8,959 polling stations across the country, all of which are equipped for electronic voting.

According to Iraqi authorities, nearly 11 million biometric identity cards have been distributed to authenticate identities.

The 285,564 internal refugees eligible to vote can do so in one of 166 polling stations in 70 camps spread across eight provinces in the country.

Voters will select party lists and seats will be divided up according to the number of votes each list secures.

Polling for Iraq's roughly one million security force personnel and the one million voters living abroad was held ahead of the main election day.

There are 6,990 candidates, including 2,011 women, set to run in the polls.

They will be competing for 329 seats, including nine reserved for minorities - Christians, Shabaks, Yazidis, Mandeans and Fayli Kurds - and 83 for women.

Candidates, selected based on their position in the party, will be elected to four-year terms in parliament.

There are 87 party lists in this year's election.

This year, for the first time since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, the ranks of the executed leader's oldest opponents, the Shiite Dawa Party, are divided.

Abadi, a key figure in the Dawa Party, has put together a list composed largely of civil society personalities that cross sectarian lines.

Conquest Alliance - led by Hadi al-Ameri, head of the Badr organisation and a leader of the mostly Shiite Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary units, which played a key role in rolling back Islamic State (IS) group jihadists.

His candidates officially quit their military roles to run for office.

Rule of Law Alliance - led by former prime minister Nuri al-Maliki.

This list relies principally on the Dawa Party, which Maliki heads.

But while it is popular with public servants hired under his mandate, the list suffers from criticisms aimed at Maliki because IS seized one-third of the country under his watch.

Marching Towards Reform - an unprecedented alliance between Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr and communists.

It includes mostly secular groups including the Iraqi Communist Party and Istiqama (Arabic for righteousness), a party of technocrats backed by Sadr, who suspended his Ahrar bloc and called on his 33 ministers not to run in the polls.

The National Alliance - led by Vice President Iyad Allawi - a Shiite who presents himself as secular -- and Sunni head of parliament Salim al-Juburi.

Weakened after three years of IS rule, Sunnis could be the biggest losers in this year's elections.

Kurds - head to polls to fill their northern autonomous region's 46 seats, two of which are reserved for Christians.

The main Kurdish parties are the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Kurdistan Patriotic Union (PUK).

There are also three opposition parties: the main Jamaa Islamiya, the newly created New Generation movement, and Goran (Kurdish for change).
Voters in Iraq go to the polls. One quarter of the 329 seats in the Council of Representatives must go to women.