Registration of Overseas Iraqi Voters Is Extended

Voter registration by Iraqis living outside their country has been far below expectations, and organizers of the effort said Saturday that they would extend the process by two days.

About one in nine of the estimated 1.2 million overseas Iraqis eligible to vote in their country’s Jan. 30 national assembly election registered in the first five days of the drive, said Niurka Pineiro, a spokeswoman for the International Organization for Migration, which is coordinating the overseas vote. The group has been trying to drum up interest in the Jan. 30 ballot, but with a limited number of registration and voting centers, participation has not been robust.

In the United States, the only registration center west of the Mississippi is in Irvine, and voters must travel there once to register, and then again to vote.

Pineiro cited other possible reasons for the low participation, including apathy, a lack of the required documents, last week’s Muslim holiday and a fear among illegal immigrants that participating in the vote might expose them to punishment.

The program recorded about 25,000 registrations a day for the first four days, but the figure for Friday jumped to 37,970, the agency said.

Registration, originally planned to end tonight, will last until Tuesday evening, the agency said.

The extension will apply to the 74 registration centers in all 14 countries where Iraqis are able to register and vote, pending the approval of the host governments.

In addition to the U.S., the host countries for the vote are Australia, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Iran, Jordan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Syria, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

Iraqis who live outside the host countries may travel at their own expense to a participating country to register and vote. To register, Iraqis have to document their identity, Iraqi nationality and birth on or before Dec. 31, 1986.