Electoral commission rejects PM Maliki’s calls for vote recount

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, locked in a tight battle with his main rival to form Iraq’s next government, called on Sunday for a manual recount of votes cast in the country’s March 7 polls.

His demand was rejected by the country’s election commission and slammed as a “clear threat” by the Iraqiya bloc that is neck-and-neck with the incumbent’s State of Law Alliance in the race to be the biggest grouping in parliament.
  
Results from the election, the second since Saddam Hussein was ousted in the US-led invasion of 2003, come less than six months before the United States is due to withdraw all of its combat troops from Iraq.
  
Latest figures from Iraq’s election commission and based on 92 percent of ballots cast show State of Law trailing Iraqiya, led by secular ex-premier Iyad Allawi, by less than 8,000 votes nationwide.
  
In a statement on Sunday, Maliki called on Iraq’s election commission to “immediately answer the demands of political parties to proceed with a manual recount” which he said would “protect political stability … and prevent a return to violence.”
  
The statement, which pointedly noted that Maliki remained head of the country’s armed forces, did not specify whether he wanted a nationwide recount, or only in particular provinces.
  
It differs markedly from Maliki’s own comments just a week ago, when he said election complaints “cannot affect the results.”
  
Maliki advisor Ali al-Mussawi said the count had been proceeding properly until two-thirds of votes were tabulated, at which point “numbers were jumping illogically.”
  
Hundreds of people demonstrated in support of Maliki in the holy city of Najaf as 10 provincial governors, all State of Law, issued a statement also calling for a recount.
  
The statement urged the commission to “address doubts… by a manual recount in the presence of party observers, and without the use of obscure electronic methods.”
  
Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) rejected Maliki’s request for a manual recount saying it would take “too long.”
  
“We have provided all political entities with CDs with the results of counting at the political centres, after thorough checks on our part,” commission chief Faraj al-Haidari told AFP.
  
“If they have doubts and think that there are errors, they can ask us to hold recounts at particular centres, but not across all of Iraq,” he added.
  
Senior Iraqiya candidate Intisar Allawi, a relative of the bloc’s leader, denounced Maliki’s remarks as a “clear threat against the commission”, adding that a manual recount was a “contradiction” fuelled by news that Iraqiya had taken the lead in the nationwide vote tally.
  
Although she declined to say a manual recount was unnecessary, she said such action “would mean a delay of the results for several months.”
  
“This would lead to a political vacuum that would affect the security situation.”
  
IHEC officials and Western diplomats have downplayed any allegations of fraud, and pleaded for patience as the vote count, which has so far taken two weeks, continues.
  
Figures released on Saturday showed Iraqiya garnered 2,543,632 votes compared with State of Law’s 2,535,704, a difference of 7,928.
  
The nationwide vote count is an indication of the tight race between the two main rivals, but it was not immediately clear how their tallies would affect the number of seats they win in parliament.
  
Maliki’s bloc currently leads in seven of Iraq’s 18 provinces, including the single biggest Baghdad and six other mostly Shiite southern provinces. Allawi, meanwhile, is ahead in five mostly Sunni provinces but looks likely to win several seats in Shiite areas.
  
Iraq’s proportional representation system makes it unlikely for any single group to clinch the 163 seats required to form a government on its own.
  
Complete election results are expected in the coming days. Final results — after all complaints have been investigated and ruled upon — are likely by the end of the month.

Source

France24.com