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Iraq’s parliamentary elections will be decisive for the future, the country’s president said on Sunday. (@BarhamSalih)

Iraqi president: Upcoming elections will be ‘decisive’

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LONDON: Iraq’s parliamentary elections will be decisive for the future, the country’s president said on Sunday.

“The upcoming elections are crucial and important, and come after popular demonstrations calling for reform and change,” Iraqi News Agency quoted Barham Salih as saying.

They must be a “real response to public opinion” and be a peaceful way of achieving desired reforms, the president said.

His comments came after he met with UN envoy to Iraq Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi said in August that parliamentary elections would be held in June, nearly a year before they had been scheduled to take place.

The country’s top Shiite cleric threw his support behind Al-Kadhimi’s announcement and also met with Hennis-Plasschaert on Sunday.