Iraq electoral commission orders some manual recounts
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s electoral commission is rejecting the majority of complaints filed about the October 10 parliamentary election, but will manually recount votes from some polling stations.
The Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) received over a thousand complaints about the election. It said it studied 295 complaints on Friday and rejected all but one from Kirkuk because of lack of evidence and detail.
The commission “decided to approve the manual recount of some electoral stations subject to complaints, based on a complaint by one of the candidates from Kirkuk province, supported with evidence,” it stated.
On Thursday, the IHEC announced it will manually recount votes from some stations in Baghdad, Basra, Erbil, and Nineveh based on seven complaints by candidates.
The identities of the candidates or their political parties have not been disclosed.
Iraqis voted in an early election on October 10. The United Nations Security Council on Friday congratulated the Iraqi government on the election and said it welcomes “interim reports that the elections proceeded smoothly and featured significant technical and procedural improvements from previous Iraqi elections.”
The council also commended the electoral commission “for conducting a technically sound election,” adding that “any electoral disputes that may arise should be resolved peacefully through established legal channels.”
Preliminary results handed out victories to the Sadrist movement, Taqadum, Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), and the State of Law Coalition. Some parties that did not do as well 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 supporters staged a sit-in near the capital’s Green Zone. In a statement carried on Telegram channels linked to the PMF on Friday, the protesters said the electoral commission must "change the results within 72 hours... and return the stolen votes to their owners, or else our protests and sit-ins will take another approach."
They also demanded the head of the UN mission in Iraq, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, be replaced, alleging she "interfered" with the election results and called on European election observers to visit their sit-in and hear their demands.
Chairman of the PMF Falih al-Fayyadh on Friday said he supports “legal methods to object to the elections,” but that the militias do not interfere in politics.
“Our work in politics is one thing, and our work in the Hashd is something else,” he said, according to state media. He described the PMF as a force to defend democracy “rather than defending itself.”
Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, in a statement welcoming the Security Council’s comments, urged all parties to “quickly form an inclusive [government] capable to build a better future for the Iraqi peoples.”
Shiite cleric and leader of the Sadrist Movement Muqtada al-Sadr also commended the Security Council statement, tweeting that it gives a “beautiful picture of Iraqi democracy” and should restore hope in the system for those parties who claim the election is rigged.
Updated at 3:00 pm