SULAIMANI (ESTA) — A candidate of Kurdistan Coalition said on Tuesday he had won enough votes in Erbil government to become a member of the Iraqi parliament, but that the results were changed.
Faysal Karim Khan, Kurdistan Coalition’s candidate for Erbil province, said he had won nearly 28,000 votes in the Iraqi parliamentary election in Erbil.
“We collected tapes from the voting machines through some expert teams after the election ended, and the number of my votes reached nearly 28,000 after counting the votes,” Karim Khan said in a statement.
“After 11 p.m. on October 10, the votes were tampered in dangerous and different ways, in a way that the votes were read differently in any place,” he added.
The Kurdistan Coalition’s candidate said he had filed complaints and that he would hand over the tapes to the electoral commission as evidence.
“We reject the initial results because the votes were tampered and more than 161 ballot boxes had not been sent to Baghdad until Monday, including 80 boxes of Soran’s first constituency,” he said.
The Independent High Electoral Commission announced initial results of Sunday’s parliamentary election on Monday, with Sadrist movement of Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr winning more than 70 seats.
The Kurdistan Coalition won 17 seats including one of Erbil governorate, according to the IHEC office in Erbil.
The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which formed Kurdistan Coalition with Gorran Movement to take part in the election as one list, also rejected the initial results in Erbil, saying they were changed.
