[JURIST] Late reports out of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul [Wikipedia profile] Sunday say that the poll there, although it drew more voters than expected, was burdened by glaring irregularities, perhaps not surprising in view of the fact that the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq [official website] had to send a quickly-trained replacement team to the city after local election workers resigned en masse earlier this month citing security concerns. Kurdish and Christian politicians have complained about a lack of ballots that caused rioting in one location; election workers are also said to have provided too much help to voters, in several instances suggesting who should they vote for. AFP has more.

In other Iraq election news, one late-posting Iraqi blogger critical of the vote is questioning even the lower "corrected" estimates of Iraqi voter turnout [JURIST report], claiming that the figures being cited by IECI officials are percentages of registered voters, not eligible voters, and suggesting that the combined totals of out-of-country and in-country voters who went to the polls may turn out to have been less than 50% of those eligible [weblog post].