At 6 pm on Oct. 10, Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) closed the ballot boxes that Iraqi voters were invited to fill over the previous 11 hours. The fifth Council of Representatives since the US-led invasion in 2003 was set to be elected.

The morning began with low participation across Iraq' s governorates, but Anbar and Nineveh were among those which recorded a relatively high turnout. By the afternoon, the situation changed, with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi stepping up his calls on citizens to go to the polls.

Kadhimi was not the only one who urged Iraqis to vote after midday. Another important call emerged from the Abu Hanifa Mosque in Baghdad’s Al-Adhamiya district; a Sunni stronghold and a seat of the Sunni religious authorities in Iraq...