Photo By Staff Sgt. Aaron Thacker | An Iraqi national police officer from the 1st Battalion, Basra Brigade, 4th Division,...... read more read more
By Staff Sgt. Aaron Thacker
Multi-National Division South East
Polling stations will be secured and ready for larger voter turnouts for the Jan. 31 elections in Basra according to national police officials, Jan. 14.
The 1st Battalion, Basra Brigade, 4th Division, will be providing security for 10 schools serving as election sites in the As Sarraji and Al Amtahiya neighborhoods.
"Everyone will be free to vote," said Lt. Col. Sattar Jabbar Awda, the executive officer for the national police's 1st Battalion, Basra Brigade, through a translator. "No one will be forced to do anything they don't want to." Awda and his unit are working with polling officials to ensure that elections are safe and fair.
"Everything is good because the national police are providing us with our security," said an election official. "The different police agencies are cooperating with each other and us to make this work."
"We are getting more and more experience with the elections and making them better," the official said at the school in the Al Amtahiya neighborhood. "Security and logistic issues were prepared ahead of time to make them a success."
Awda said that smaller sites are expecting 2,500 – 3,000 voters and main sites are expecting up to 10,000 voters. He said this is an increase from previous elections, which he attributes to the city being safer.
He said that national police will participate in early voting so they can focus on election day security. He added that Basra police will supplement some of the polling stations if needed and other Iraqi Security Forces will support the rest of the city.
"We will control the election sites," Awda said, "stop anyone who tries cheating."
| Date Taken: | 01.18.2009 |
| Date Posted: | 01.18.2009 06:48 |
| Story ID: | 28977 |
| Location: | IQ |
| Web Views: | 398 |
| Downloads: | 358 |
This work, National police: ready to provide election security, by SSG Aaron Thacker, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
LEAVE A COMMENT