Chilean Senator Sergio Paez, president of the Inter-Parliamentarian Union (IPU), will participate as observer in the Jan. 30 elections in Iraq.

The senator said he was confident of order in the process, although there were objective difficulties due to prevailing violence in the Arab country under the US-British occupation.

He said the voting of those expatriates will be coordinated by the World Migrants Organization and verified by the IPU and other organizations in Germany, Iran, Jordan, The Netherlands, Sweden, Syria, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Britain and the United States.

A total of 18,104 overseas Iraqis have registered to vote by absentee ballots in the elections on the first day of a week-long such service for overseas Iraqis. The rest of the estimated 1.2 million overseas Iraqis eligible for the elections will have to register before Sunday. Enditem