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BAGHDAD, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) called Tuesday on foreign countries and diplomatic missions in Iraq to monitor the upcoming elections slated for June 6.

The IHEC said in a statement that it also called on local organizations to monitor the elections at all its stages "to achieve fair elections."

The commission urged all eligible voters to check and update their voter registration records in registration centers across the country, starting from Jan. 2 to Feb. 2.

Yemen’s President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi has sworn in a new government that was formed thanks to a power-sharing deal brokered by Saudi Arabia last year.

The 24-member cabinet, announced last week, was sworn in during a ceremony held on Saturday in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, where Hadi is living.

The new government, headed by Prime Minister Maeen Abdul Malik, represents Yemen’s northern and southern areas with equal numbers of members from each region.

Egypt’s parliament and human rights organizations on Saturday have further condemned a European report on the state of Egyptian human rights, calling it both “opportunistic” and “an explicit violation of human rights.”

Egypt stated that it strongly rejects all allegations made by the European report, and said that the matter came to exploit human rights as a pretext to meddle with Egyptian affairs.

It the decried the report as inconsistent with international conventions and Egypt’s sovereignty over its lands.

Kuwait's ruler told the new parliament, in which opposition candidates made gains, that comprehensive reform was needed to help the Gulf Arab state exit its worst economic crisis in decades and that there was no time for "fabricating conflicts".

Emir Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Sabah took the reins in September following the death of his brother at a time the wealthy OPEC member state is facing a severe liquidity crunch due to low oil prices and the coronavirus crisis.

The UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) failed Tuesday to achieve agreement among the participants of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) on selecting a mechanism or option to be used to elect new Presidential Council members and a Prime Minister ahead of an interim period that lasts till holding elections on December 24, 2021.

The failure came as a third of the 71 participants boycotted the voting session, thus the two UNSMIL proposals didn't get the needed votes since only 50 participants took part and 21 didn't.

The Egyptian National Elections Authority (NEA) will announce the final result of the House of Representatives runoff vote on Monday, declaring the names of winners of 100 seats for the run-off.

Over 77M voters expected to cast ballots for mayors, governors, other officials in 270 constituencies, says election body.

JAKARTA, Indonesia 

With strict COVID-19 protocols in place, millions of voters turned out to cast their ballots for local elections in Indonesia on Wednesday.

According to the General Elections Commission, some 100 million people – about one-third of the country’s population – were registered to vote in 270 constituencies, including 224 districts and 37 cities, to elect mayors, governors, and other officials.

Kuwait City: Kuwait’s opposition took nearly half of parliament’s seats in weekend polls amid calls for reforms over corruption and high debt, but the sole female lawmaker lost her seat.

Twenty-four of the National Assembly’s 50 seats were won by candidates belonging to or leaning towards the opposition, up from 16 in the last parliament, according to results announced on Sunday by the electoral commission on state TV.

The second round includes constituencies from 13 out of the 27 governorates, with the run-offs being limited to candidates running under the individual system

The second and final day of the run-off elections in the second round of the Egyptian parliamentary elections began at 9am on Tuesday.

The second round includes constituencies from 13 out of the 27 governorates, with the run-offs being limited to candidates running under the individual system who will compete for the 101 remaining seats after securing 42 individual seats during the first round.