SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court on Monday denied an appeal from al-Fateh Alliance to cancel the final results of the October parliamentary election.
The federal court held a session on Monday to decide on a case filed by the alliance led by Hadi al-Amiri, after it was delayed several times in the past months.
After denying the appeal, the federal court stressed that the parliament should amend the electoral law and adopt the “manual counting system exclusively”, state news agency INA reported.
Hashid al-Shaabi leaders have rejected the results as a “fraud”.
Lawyer for the plaintiffs told AFP earlier this month that the aim of the Hashid’s appeal was to “have the results annulled” due to “serious violations”.
According to the alliance, the electronic voting system had failed to recognize the finger print identification of many voters.
U.N. special representative Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert has noted that “so far and as stated by the Iraqi judiciary, there is no evidence of systemic fraud”.
The court’s decision comes as supporters of the Hashid al-Shaabi former paramilitary alliance protested near Green Zone in Baghdad against the election results, announced by the electoral commission on November 30.
The Sadrist Movement, led by Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, won nearly a fifth of the seats – 73 out of the assembly’s total 329.
The Taqqadum Party, which draws support from minority Sunni Muslims, won 37 seats, according to the final results.
Former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s State of Law Alliance won 33 seats, the results showed. A distant second with 17 seats was the al-Fateh Alliance, the political arm of Hashid al-Shaabi.
Turnout reached 44%, the commission said, revised up from the 43% preliminary figure but still lower than in the last election in 2018.
More than 9.6 million people cast their ballots in the Oct. 10 vote, where at least 167 parties and more than 3,200 candidates competed for the parliament’s 329 seats, the commission said.
Analysts have warned that – in a country still recovering from decades of war and chaos, and where most parties have armed wings – political disputes could spark a dangerous escalation, according to AFP.
Tensions over fraud allegations and violence culminated on November 7 in an assassination attempt against Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, from which he emerged unharmed.
No group has claimed the attack.
*This story was updated at 02:34 p.m. EBL time
