SULAIMANI (ESTA) — The Kurdistan Justice Group said there was “electoral fraud” in two constituencies of Erbil governorate during Iraq’s general election.
Candidate Abdulstar Majid said the party had warned the electoral commission about the “electoral fraud” in the third and fourth constituencies in Erbil.
Iraq held early parliamentary election on Sunday. Voter turnout was 41%, a record low in the post-Saddam Hussein era signaling widespread distrust of the country’s leaders and the vote for a new parliament. That’s down from 44% in the 2018 elections, which was an all-time low.
Shia Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s party was the biggest winner in the election, increasing the number of seats he holds in parliament.
“Some of the frauds were carried out through the ballot boxes, and some others were violations,” Majid said in a press conference on Tuesday night.
“We won’t remain silent and we won’t accept it even if we have lost our lives on it,” he continued.
Majid added that there were differences between votes from the voting machine and the manual counting.
“The authorities cannot hold an election without frauds,” he said.
On Monday, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) committee of election also rejected the initial results announced by the electoral commission in Erbil, saying the votes were changed.
“Some of the ballot boxes were changed and were opened. In some places, votes of candidates are more than 200, but in some other places, they don’t exceed 20 votes,” it added.
Kurdistan Coalition’s candidate Faysam Karim Khan also rejected results for Erbil governorate, saying he had won enough votes to become a member of the Iraqi parliament, but the results were changed.
The PUK and the candidate said they had filed complaints at the electoral commission.
