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Iraq
Iraqi parliamentary elections on 10 October, 2021 in Erbil, Kurdistan Region. Photo: Bilind T. Abdullah
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) on Monday completed its inspection and manual recount of thousands of stations which had been subject to complaints, with the result of Iraq’s October 10 election remaining the same.
“The commission began inspecting and manually counting [the votes] of stations that were subject to complaints. A total of 1,436 complaints were made,” the IHEC announced in a statement on Monday, following last week’s invitation for new evidence supporting alleged election fraud.
The complaints were submitted in Nineveh, Salahaddin, Babel, Misan, Diyala, al-Rasafa, Karkh, Dhi Qar, Basra and Najaf, with the recount covering 4,324 stations, the statement added.
Iraq held its parliamentary election last month, with the IHEC announcing the official preliminary results days later, following immediate results.
Although the commission has received international praise for the way it carried out the voting, some political parties have alleged rigging - especially losing parties.
According to the commission's statement, the results of manual recount matched those initially announced, but some votes which had been previously marked invalid were actually valid, so necessary measures will be taken for their validation.
Details of the entire manual recount and the final results will be announced soon, said the IHEC.
Preliminary results saw the Sadrist movement, Taqadum, Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), and the State of Law Coalition perform well. Some parties that did not perform as popularly as expected, including Turkmens in Kirkuk and Iran-backed parties affiliated with the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, or Hashd al-Shaabi in Arabic) such as the Fatih Alliance, have alleged fraud.
Hashd has held protests against the results on more than one occasion, with the latest demonstration turning violent this Friday.
The Hashd protests and threats against Prime Minister Mustafa Kadhimi were followed by a drone attack on his residence on Sunday. He survived but the attack caused material damage, which pro-Iran militias have mocked.
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