United Nations Radio

The United Nations mission in Iraq says the weekend elections for provincial councils were peaceful and well-organized.

Elections in Iraq

The UN representative in Iraq, Staffan de Mistura told UN Radio that he personally visited several voting locations and was satisfied with the way the procedures were being followed. Due to the new regulations, he said that some people were not able to vote, because they were not registered in advance.

"This is the first time, in order to avoid fraud, that the elections have been following the procedure about the fact that people should be registered first, and then vote. And that is a great guarantee for avoiding double voting."

Mr. de Mistura says the integrity of the process was more important than the few votes that could not take place. He added that the elections were overseen by more than 400 international monitors and more than 400,000 Iraqi observers.

Reporting for UN Radio, I am Bissera Kostova.

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