Saddam Hussein will not be voting on Sunday. Although a citizen of Iraq, the former president will not be allowed to vote in the country’s first open election, said officials from the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, the body that has set the rules. Officials gave differing if not very elucidating reasons as to why Saddam and Iraq’s other prisoners have been denied an opportunity to participate. ‘‘We couldn’t register prisoners because the conditions are not normal and because of the security procedures to visit prisons,’’ said Adel Alami, executive director of the commission. He declined to explain what conditions and procedures make voting impossible for prisoners and added that, hopefully, they will be able to vote next time. His deputy, Harith Mohammed, said: ‘‘Iraqi prisoners will not get to vote for technical reasons.’’ Voter lists have largely been drawn from food ration cards issued during the years of United Nations sanctions on Iraq. Voters who were not on the lists or whose personal details changed after the cards were issued had a chance to register in the run-up to the election. It is unclear whether Saddam ever had a ration card — perhaps an unlikely scenario for a man who spent millions, perhaps billions, of dollars building palaces during the years of UN sanctions. —LAT-WP
