The newspapers issued today, Sunday, paid attention to the upcoming elections and followed up on the budget.
Regarding the elections, Al-Zawraa newspaper, which is published by the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate, quoted Imad Jamil, the head of the media team of the Commission, as saying in a press statement: “The Commission’s latest preparations for the provincial elections are to start registering alliances, parties, and candidates next July, with the electoral centers continuing to update the voter register and distribute the biometric card.
He added, "The Commission's staff is still training, with a willingness to raise the level of registration, update, and voter card distribution by the mobile teams supported by the Commission," noting that "the ministries have been addressed to assist in this and facilitate the work of the mobile teams."
He stated that “the role of civil society organizations is to scrutinize, guide and encourage,” explaining that “there are paragraphs in the election law that must apply the manual counting and sorting processes, the establishment of 15 audit centers in the governorates, and the development of security and logistical plans to announce the results within 24 hours, which need collect memory stick and paper results if there is a discrepancy."
He continued, "The voting mechanism in the upcoming elections differs from the previous elections," pointing out that "in the past elections, the voter used to choose the candidate, but now the voter chooses the list and the candidate."
He stressed that "if the list is chosen without the candidate, then the vote goes to the list, and if the candidate is chosen without the list, then the electoral paper is neglected, as the programming was very sensitive and when enter the (Cyril Number) it will work again,” stressing that “the commission will address this defect in the upcoming elections.
Regarding the elections, Al-Sabah newspaper said that despite the delay in approving the country's federal budget law until the middle of the current year 2023, it has not lost its economic feasibility, and its implementation does not include the growing fears of an increase in the financial deficit in it, as governmental and other parliamentary sources stated that the deficit rate will be controlled through several chapters, including the accumulated cash surplus for the previous months, as well as the issuance of government bonds and internal borrowing.
On June 12, the House of Representatives approved the general budget law for three years, after months of discussions and over 5 consecutive days of its sessions, to be the longest period and the largest number of parliamentary sessions due to a number of political differences over it.
For his part, the former director of the Office of Financial Supervision, Salah Nouri, said, "The implementation of the provisions of the budget law will be in accordance with the actual financial liquidity, especially with regard to investment projects." He pointed out that "all previous budgets were unable to achieve the expected revenues, and because the financial liquidity is much less than expected, priority is given to the operational budget of salaries and ruling expenses." Nuri concluded by saying: "If all items of the budget are required to be implemented, then the financial ceiling will be covered by borrowing, and that investment projects will not be completed most likely because half of the year has passed until the budget is approved."
Meanwhile, a member of the Parliamentary Finance Committee, Nermin Maarouf, said: "Iraq's revenues depend 83 % on crude oil exports in the 2023 budget, and if the price of a barrel falls in global markets, it will inevitably affect the implementation of the budget," adding: "The price of oil is expected to remain around $70 per barrel, so there are no risks to the budget for the current year." Maarouf added, in a symposium on the budget held in the city of Sulaymaniyah: “The total oil and non-oil financial revenues in the budget amount to 134 trillion dinars, but the actual budget is 199 trillion dinars, and there is a large deficit in it amounting to 64 trillion dinars.” she continued, "The government intends to bridge this deficit, which amounts to approximately 64 trillion dinars, through the existing surplus of financial revenues from last year achieved from the sale of oil, which amounts to 23 trillion dinars, and the rest it fills from selling treasury bonds to the Central Bank of Iraq and borrowing from ( al-Rafidain) and (Al-Rasheed) banks in addition to external borrowing, which amounts to 10 trillion dinars.
The newspaper quoted the economic advisor to the Prime Minister, Madhar Muhammad Salih, as saying, “After the Presidency approves the budget and publishes it in the Official Gazette, it will enter into force, as the budget instructions will be issued jointly by the Ministries of Finance and Planning, and this whole process will not take more than one week."
He stressed, "There is no fear for the budget from the fluctuation of oil prices, because in the current reality it managed for half a year, but its approval will require additional expenditures during the second half of this year."
Saleh added, "Expenses will increase from now on, and those expenses will be covered from oil and non-oil revenues, and any financial deficit can be remedied through internal and external borrowing."
Al-Zaman newspaper dealt with the issue of retirees and said that the retirees are waiting for the Ministry of Finance to pay the salaries of the next July.
They said in yesterday's conversations (we are waiting for the next month's salaries to be paid before Eid al-Adha, in order to cover the expenses and requirements of their families), and they called on the government (to give them an Eid gift and pay attention to their situation and work to support and be fair to them by increasing their dues that were not included in the budget).
A source had revealed the date of launching and disbursing the salaries of retirees for the next month.
The source said that (the salaries of the civil and military retirees will be distributed next Monday, to coincide with the beginning of next month with the Eid al-Adha holiday), stressing that (the disbursement will take place with the reinforcement of the financial funding notification by the Ministry of Finance). And the Ministry of Finance issued a new clarification regarding the extinguishment of government advances granted during previous years.
Source: National Iraqi News Agency