Iraqi National Security Service arrests 46 suspects in voter card trafficking operations

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s National Security Service said Friday it arrested 46 people accused of buying and selling voter identification cards and seized 1,841 cards during operations across three governorates.

In a statement, the agency said its units carried out “security operations in Baghdad, Anbar, Nineveh, and western Nineveh based on precise intelligence work,” resulting in the arrests. “All suspects, along with the seized items, have been referred to the competent judicial authorities to take legal action,” the statement said.

The arrests come as authorities increase efforts to prevent electoral fraud ahead of Iraq’s parliamentary elections scheduled for Nov. 11.

In June, the Independent High Electoral Commission warned that “the sale or purchase of biometric voter cards or attempts to do so, as well as the exploitation of state resources for electoral purposes, are electoral crimes punishable by law.” The commission said violators — including voters, candidates, political alliances, or parties — could face criminal charges and disqualification from the race.

Earlier this year, Iraqi security forces in Nineveh arrested a man accused of trafficking more than 1,100 voter ID cards. The judiciary said the suspect confessed to purchasing the cards from various areas “to resell them to certain candidates as the elections approached, at higher prices, treating the scheme as a business.”

In August, Iraq’s Federal Integrity Commission announced the arrest of a parliamentary election candidate and four aides in Baghdad on charges of buying voter cards in exchange for promises of government jobs or social welfare stipends.

Authorities have warned that such practices allow candidates to cast ballots using others’ identities, suppress voter turnout, or confirm illegal vote-buying deals with complicit officials.