UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's Special Representative for Iraq and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) Nikolay Mladenov assessed Iraq’s April 30 parliamentary election, praising the voting process for as the “first entirely Iraqi-owned process.”
Mr. Mladenov said Iraqis “deserve a lot of credit for a very professional manner in which they approached the organization of the election."
He continued: “The security situation in Iraq is very difficult and inevitably this places a burden on the voting process and on the country at large. Therefore, the fact that 60 percent of people did come out to vote is even more remarkable. The legitimacy of the vote, the acceptance of the results -- we will see how the public will react to that once the results are finalized."
For the original May 7, 2014 piece from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty referenced in this summary, click here.