Iraq election employees slain in drive-by shooting

[sabra]

Source: Reuters

BASRA, Iraq, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Gunmen killed two employees of Iraq's election commission and wounded another in a drive-by shooting on Monday, officials said, in an incident that could herald violence ahead of stalled provincial polls.

Ma'ath Wahab, a director of a registration office that is part of an independent body set up to oversee elections, was travelling to work with several colleagues in the southern town of Abu al-Khaseeb when gunmen attacked their minibus, said Hazem al-Rubaie, head of the Electoral Commission in Basra.

Another electoral worker was killed and a third was seriously wounded, Rubaie said, adding it was not clear who the gunmen were or why they killed them.

Iraqis had been scheduled to return to the polls for the first time since 2005 on October 1, when long-awaited provincial elections were expected to reconfigure the country's delicate political balance.

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