Seven killed in Iraq polling centre suicide attack

At least seven security personnel were killed and 13 injured Monday in a suicide attack targeting a polling centre in northern Iraq.

A suicide bomber blew up his explosive vest among queues of policemen and soldiers at a polling centre in al-Wasiti district in the city of Kirkuk, some 250 km north of Baghdad, a police source told Xinhua.

The police earlier said that up to nine security people were killed and 41 injured in separate polling centre attacks in Iraq.

Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) decided that security forces should vote two days ahead of the scheduled election date April 30 in order to be free to guard polling stations on election day.

Meanwhile, Iraqi expatriates continued casting their ballots for the second day Monday in 70 cities in 19 countries.

Expatriates in New Zealand, Jordan and Iran cast their votes Sunday.

The 2014 general elections are the first since the withdrawal of the US military forces from Iraq.

The last Iraqi general elections were held in 2010.

The IHEC has allowed 276 political entities to run in the elections this year.

The approved list includes the prime minister's State of Law Coalition, the Sadrist Movement (Ahrar), President Jalal Talabani's Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Iraqi National Accord.

New parties, including the former militant group Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq and the White Iraqiya Bloc which split from the Iraqi National Accord, also appear in the approved list.

There are 6,425 male candidates and 2,607 female candidates competing for 328 seats in the Iraqi Council of Representatives.