The recount is beginning in Nineveh, and will be followed by Babil governorate and Baghdad, the High Independent Electoral Commission (IHEC) said in a statement late on Tuesday.
IHEC invited “agents of the candidates who appealed the results and the observation teams to attend and monitor” the recount, it added in the statement.
The commission last week announced the final preliminary results in the parliamentary election following the manual count of polling stations that were not electronically counted due to technical issues. It also gave parties the option make complaints about the updated results. Over a thousand appeals were submitted.
Iraqis voted in an early election on October 10. The preliminary results handed victories to the Sadrist movement, Taqadum, Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), and the State of Law Coalition. Iran-backed parties affiliated with the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, or Hashd al-Shaabi in Arabic) such as the Fatih Alliance did not do as well as expected. They have alleged fraud and supporters are staging a sit-in in Baghdad, demanding a recount or new vote.
