BAGHDAD: Iraqis voted on Monday in the first provincial council elections held in a decade.
The vote comes at a time of widespread political apathy and disillusionment in the country of 43 million.
Turnout at noon had reached just 17 per cent, said election commission official Omar Ahmed, who urged voters to come out and "contribute to the success of the electoral process".
The vote is seen as a key test for Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani ahead of a general election due in 2025.
Sudani, after casting his ballot in Baghdad, hailed the councils as "a pillar of the executive" which help the government implement policies.
The premier has pledged to boost public services and rebuild infrastructure ravaged by decades of conflict and turmoil.
He urged Iraqis to elect "honest" representatives. Some 17 million people are eligible to vote, with 6,000 candidates vying for just 285 council seats.
In the end, turnout will be "the ultimate gauge of satisfaction," Renad Mansour said, a senior research fellow at think tank Chatham House.
It will show "whether the Sudani government's economic populism -- the policy of giving out (public sector) jobs -- can be successful and can capture the young population".
Elections were held in 15 provinces, but not in the three which make up an autonomous Kurdish region in the north.
Voting was held amid tight security, and polls were due to close at 6:00 pm, with preliminary results expected 24 hours later, the electoral commission said.
One quarter of candidates are women under a system that also reserves quotas for the Christian, Yazidi and Sabian minorities.
The vote was expected to boost the ruling bloc called the Coordination Framework coalition.
Mansour said some alliance heavyweights hope the elections will "prove they have a social base and that they are popular" following disappointing results in 2021 national elections.
Tensions around the Israel-Gaza war were not seen as a major factor in the elections, despite recent drone attacks against US-led coalition troops based in Iraq.
No security breaches were reported during the morning, Interior Minister Abdel Amir al-Chammari told reporters.
Observers kept a close eye on the northern province of Kirkuk where historic rivalries could resurface between parties representing its Arab, Kurdish and Turkmen communities. — AFP
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