Iraqi Parl't Committee Proposes Holding Parallel Elections

Iraqi Parliament Committee said, on Saturday, that there is a tendency to hold provincial elections with the parliamentary ones.

“This move aims at saving money and efforts,” Deputy Committee Mahmoud Al-Kaabi told Iraqi News Agency (INA), noting that the abolition of provincial councils needs a constitutional amendment.

"The committee held a deliberative meeting on the subject of the third amendment to the provincial councils law," Al-Kaabi stated, affirming that “These councils were suspended according to Law No. 27 of 2019.”

“They exceeded the legal periods stipulated in the provincial councils law, in which the election cycle of the provincial council is four years,” he added.

"The most prominent aspect of the law will be almost identical to the elections for the House of Representatives by 90% in terms of form (electoral districts)," he said.

On the other hand, at least 26 civilians in Iraq were injured in an explosion of a gas cylinder in one of the Samoon furnaces in Al Diwaniyah province, according to the health department.

In a press release, the department said, “26 people were injured as a result of a gas cylinder explosion in a bakery in the eastern Hamza district in the Diwaniyah governorate, south of the country.”