SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Iraq’s electoral commission said on Monday that a manual vote recount in some polling stations where complaints were filed by pro-Iran groups did not show any “fraud”.
The announcement comes amid tensions in Iraq, whose prime minister escaped unhurt from a drone attack at the weekend and where protesters have camped on the streets to contest election results.
Al-Fateh Alliance, political arm of the powerful Hashid al-Shaabi paramilitary force, won around 15 of 329 seats contested in the October 10 legislative election, preliminary results show.
In the last parliament it held 48, making it the second-largest bloc.
The big winner this time, with more than 70 seats according to the initial count, was the movement of Moqtada Sadr, a Shia Muslim preacher who campaigned as a nationalist and critic of Iran.
But Hashid leaders have rejected the results as a “scam” and their supporters have held protests chanting “No to fraud” and accusing the prime minister of “complicity”.
Amid the mounting tension, Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi escaped unhurt early on Sunday from an unclaimed “assassination” bid in which an explosive-packed drone hit his Baghdad home.
The electoral commission said in a statement that a manual vote recount at 4,324 polling stations indicated no irregularities.
We have verified all the votes in the contested stations and the [preliminary] results are the same as those already announced,” it said.
Final results will be announced after they are validated by a legal committee, it added without giving a date.
(Esta Media Network/AFP)
