1995 Iraqi presidential referendum

A presidential referendum was held in Iraq on October 15, 1995. It was the first direct presidential election in Ba'athist Iraq under the rule of Saddam Hussein, who had seized power through the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) in 1979. Taking the form of a referendum with no other candidates, the election involved distributing to voters paper ballots that said: "Do you approve of President Saddam Hussein being the President of the Republic?" They then used pens to mark "yes" or "no". The next day, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, Hussein's deputy in the ruling RCC, announced the incumbent had won 99.96% of some 8.4 million valid votes cast. Officially, 3,052 people voted against him (45 of them in Baghdad), and turnout was 99.47%. The international community reacted with widespread incredulity to these figures.