Pressures and interventions changed election results

Some blocs and political parties threatened to reject Iraq's recent election results, while a political analyst confirmed the possibility of the irruption of some political convulsions, frictions, and protests following the preliminary results of the elections.

Political analyst Ali Al-Baydar told PUKmedia that "the Prime Minister, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, must take firm measures so that things do not go in directions that would be difficult to restore."

"The shown results will be subject to changes to satisfy some parties at the expense of others and to bring balance within the political arena in Iraq," he said.

"There are pressures on the commission and there was also regional interference in the election results to satisfy some political parties. This matter robbed the Iraqis of will and made the people lose confidence completely in the electoral process," he added.

Iraq's High Electoral Commission (IHEC) has removed the preliminary results of the Iraqi parliamentary election from its official website while the IHEC is scheduled to begin a manual recount of the votes on Wednesday.

"The votes which will be recounted is only 6% of the total vote in all of Iraq," the IHEC said in a statement.

On Sunday, the general voting process for the early elections of the 2021 Iraqi Parliament took place all over Kurdistan Region and Iraq with a low turnout of only 41 %. Candidates were competing for 329 seats in the Iraqi Parliament Council, 83 seats are allocated to women, also nine seats for minorities.

The party of cleric Muqtada al-Sadr was the largest vote-getter in Iraqi parliamentary elections, according to initial results released Monday.

A count based on partial results shows the Shiite Muslim cleric has won more than 70 seats in the 329-seat parliament.

Al-Sadr's party said it won 73 seats, increasing its seat count of 54 and giving it a large influence in government formation.

Meanwhile, losses were booked by pro-Iranian parties with links to the armed groups that make up the fighter network known as Hashd al-Shaabi, or Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF).

Iraq held the elections months ahead of its time. Early elections were one of the demands of the protesters who took to the Iraqi streets in October 2019 to vent their anger and frustration at the government's inability to fight corruption and provide them with security and stability.  



PUKmedia