IRELAND: Iraqis living in Ireland will have to make two journeys to Britain this month if they wish to vote in their country's forthcoming election.
Approximately 400 Iraqi citizens, many on limited incomes, will first have to travel to register for the election and then return later to cast their ballot. No provision has been made for voting facilities on the island of Ireland to facilitate an estimated 300 Iraqis living in the Republic and 100 in Northern Ireland.
Regulations for the election require voters to go through a two-stage process. First, they must register between January 17th and 23rd, as there are no exile voting lists in existence. Subsequently, a total of three days has been allocated for Iraqis abroad to cast their vote, from January 28th to 30th. Only one day, January 30th, has been allocated for voters living inside Iraq.
The nearest available voting facilities will be in London, Manchester and Glasgow. "Out-of-country voting" for Iraqis is being organised by the International Organisation for Migration, which has a branch office in Dublin.
An Iraqi human rights activist living in Ireland, Mr Khalid Ibrahim, said: "We have no option but to travel twice." But he stressed the income constraints on many Iraqis living here.
A spokeswoman for the IOM in Dublin said the organisation had been asked to organise voting for exiles by Iraq's Independent Electoral Commission. Fourteen countries with the highest estimated number of Iraqi immigrants had been chosen, including the UK.
She said voting facilities could not be provided in Ireland due to "limited resources". There was no legal restriction on Iraqis in Ireland who wished to cast their vote in Britain, but no travel funds were available "due to budgetary constraints".
Mr Ibrahim said the IOM position was unhelpful as the cost of providing a polling booth in Ireland would not be unreasonable and the voting could be supervised by the IOM's Dublin office.
The out-of-country voting programme was established last November by agreement between the IOM and the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq "to enfranchise Iraqi expatriates and refugees to register and vote" in this month's elections. The programme is based in the Jordanian capital, Amman.