On March 5, the day that out-of-country voting for the Iraqi parliamentary election began in 16 countries around the world, Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN), Iraqi Ambassador to the U.S. Samir Sumaida’ie, and IFES President and CEO Bill Sweeney visited the polling station for the Washington, D.C metro area.

The Senator, Ambassador and Mr. Sweeney gave a brief press conference before proceeding to observe the election. The Iraqi Out-of-Country Voting in Washington gallery provides images of the event.

Out-of-country voting for the March 7 Iraqi parliamentary election ran from March 5 to March 7 in 16 countries around the world: Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Egypt, Germany, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Netherlands, Sweden, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and the U.S.

In the United States, 9 polling stations were established in the 8 metropolitan areas with the largest concentrations of Iraqi immigrants: Chicago, Illinois; Dallas, Texas; Detroit, Michigan; Nashville, Tennessee; Phoenix, Arizona; San Francisco and San Diego, California; and Washington, DC. The polls were open from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. all three days.

At the request of the IHEC and with funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), IFES assisted the IHEC in the implementation of its OCV program for the 2010 parliamentary elections. IFES had representatives advising the IHEC in 15 of the 16 countries (all except for Iran).