Verbal assault on Gorran official by the illiterate general Osman Qasem

The Change List election poll observers have reported the voting today the 23 of July as being calm and with no signs of foul play. But there will be several complaints filed on voters being armed, carrying weapons openly. This has been reported from most of the polling stations.

We are also filing a complaint to the Independent High Electoral Commision (IHEC) on behalf of Dindar Yusef, the Change List official in Zakho. At 5.40 PM today when he was in the polling station at Raman school, general Osman Qasem, the head of peshmerga (Supa), Zakho, threatened him. He told him to "remain calm or else...". He answered "you be calm" and then Qasems guards showered him with curses as they passed him. Osman Qasem did not answer them to avoid a conflict. He also feared that they were armed, although he did not see any visible weapons.

The Change List in Kurdistan have filed hundreds of complaints on the Kurdistani List breaking the IHEC rules during the campaign period. Some of them have already been fined. In order to develop a democratic procedure for future elections we need to report all incidents and all breaching of rules. We will learn this way, and hopefully the attitudes of all will grow into the democratic way of thinking eventually.