IHEC: We will complete looking into all appeals within two days

The Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) clarified the nature of the measures taken if fraud in polling stations was proven to be true while indicating that it will complete the consideration of all appeals within two days.

"We accepted the appeals that included documents and evidence," Imad Jamil, a member of the media team of the IHEC, said in a press statement.

"We have completed the consideration of two-thirds of the appeals received out of 1,400 appeals, and we will complete the consideration of the total number within two days," he added.

According to the IHEC, If it is confirmed that there is tampering with the stations whose results are appealed, its employees will be referred to the judiciary, and a decision may also be taken to cancel all the votes of the station.

The results of the manual sorting will be adopted in the event of a difference based on the appeals.

Earlier, the commission recommended rejecting 322 appeals against the election results and recounting the votes of 234 electoral stations.

The 234 were appealed by 18 parties distributed over the governorates: Saladin and Basra, in addition to Baghdad.

Iraq conducted early elections on October 10 with a low turnout of only 41 %. Candidates were competing for 329 seats in the Iraqi Parliament Council.

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 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.

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 Mobilization Forces (PMF).

Hashd supporters protested near the capital’s Green Zone. In a statement published by Telegram channels linked to the PMF on Friday, the protesters said the electoral commission must "change the results within 72 hours..., or else our protests and sit-ins will take another approach."

The country 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