BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Iraq's elections commission said Sunday the general election has been set for Jan. 30.
Commission Spokesman Farid Ayar issued a statement in Beirut, saying voters will select the Iraqi national assembly, the Kurdish regional legislature and 18 provincial councils.
It was the first announcement of an exact date for the first Iraqi elections since the U.S. toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in April 2003.
Ayar said the elections commission was working to finalize all the necessary measures to facilitate the polling process, adding it intended to invite international and local observers to monitor the elections.
He denied reports that contacts were made between the Iraqi political parties and the former U.N. envoy to Iraq, Lakhdar Brahimi, to postpone the elections.
