IRAQ: The January Elections by the Numbers

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The Iraqi elections are scheduled to take place on January 30, 2005:

Date campaigning began: December 15, 2004

Last day of campaigning: January 23, 2005

Percentage of Iraqi Sunnis "very likely" to vote, according to a December 2004 internal U.S. State Department poll: 32 percent

Percentage of Iraqi Shiites "very likely" to vote, same poll: 87 percent

Approximate percentage of Iraqi population that is Arab Sunni: 20 percent

Approximate percentage of Iraqi population that is Arab Shiite: 60 percent

Governmental bodies being elected: 20

• The transitional National Assembly, which will select the president and prime minister and draft a constitution;
• the Iraqi Kurdistan National Assembly, the law-making body in Iraq’s semi-autonomous northern region; and
• 18 provincial councils, one in each province.

Seats in the National Assembly: 275

Political "entities"--parties, individuals, or coalitions--running for the National Assembly: 111

Total candidates on the national ballot: 7,785

Political parties in the Kurdish National Assembly elections: 14

Seats in the Kurdistan National Assembly: 111

Seats on most provincial councils: 41

Seats on Baghdad’s provincial council: 51

Total candidates running for provincial councils: 9,000

Eligible voters inside Iraq: 14.27 million

Eligible voters (Iraqi citizens) outside Iraq: 1.2 million to 2 million

Nations in which expatriate Iraqis can vote: 14--Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Iran, Jordan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Syria, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States

Estimated eligible Iraqi voters in the United States: 230,000

U.S. soldiers in Iraq on Election Day: Approximately 150,000

Fully and partially trained Iraqi security forces by Election Day: about 125,000

Troops from other nations in Iraq on Election Day: About 25,000

Countries with troops stationed in Iraq: 29

Total number of polling stations in Iraq: nearly 6,000

Number of poll workers required: 194,000

International advisers in Iraq assisting with the vote, as of December 2004: 29

Organizations they represent:

• the United Nations (16 advisers);
• the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (8);
• the European Commission (3); and
• the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development(2)

Sources: International Foundation for Electoral Systems, the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, U.S. State Department, news reports.