Baghdad: An Iraqi electoral official says there will be no balloting in parts of the Sunni-dominated Anbar province engulfed in clashes between security forces and Al Qaida-inspired militants.
Muqdad Al Shuraifi from the Independent High Electoral Commission said on Tuesday that families displaced by the fighting will be allowed to vote in areas deemed “safe” or in parts of the province where they found shelter.
The April 30 parliamentary election is the first balloting in Iraq since the withdrawal of US troops in late 2011.
But the exclusion of major Sunni cities such as Ramadi and Fallujah — where most of the fighting is underway as Iraqi forces try to wrest back areas overrun by militants — from the voting could deepen Sunni fears of being marginalised by the country’s Shiite majority.
Meanwhile, attacks left 12 people dead on Tuesday while security forces said they killed 25 militants near Baghdad amid worries insurgents are encroaching on the capital weeks ahead of elections.
The latest violence is part of a protracted surge in nationwide bloodshed that has left more than 2,400 people dead since the start of the year and sparked fears Iraq is slipping back into the all-out sectarian conflict that plagued it in 2006-07.
The unrest has been driven principally by anger in the Sunni Arab community over alleged mistreatment at the hands of the Shiite-led government and security forces, as well as spillover from the civil war in neighbouring Syria.
In Tuesday’s bloodiest incident, soldiers killed 25 militants in an ambush southwest of Baghdad, the capital’s security spokesman Brigadier General Saad Maan said.
Maan said the fighters were part of the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil), and that they were planning to attack an army base that they had attempted to hit last week.
Despite the tactical success, the killings illustrate the growing ambition of Isil militants in seeking to breach into Baghdad, with analysts and officials worrying that they are seeking to derail April 30 elections.
Elsewhere in Iraq on Tuesday, attacks north of the capital killed 12 people, security and medical officials said, including six members of the same family shot inside their home on the outskirts of the restive city of Mosul.
A car bomb set off by a suicide attacker at a checkpoint in the restive city of Tuz Khurmatu killed a policeman, while attacks also struck against Baiji and Tikrit in Salah Al Deen province.
Diplomats and analysts have urged the government to reach out to the Sunni community to undermine support for militancy.
But with the parliamentary elections looming, Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki and other Shiite leaders have been loath to be seen to compromise.
Near-daily bloodshed is part of a long list of voter concerns that also include lengthy power cuts, poor wastewater treatment, rampant corruption and high unemployment.