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Iraq
Iraq concludes manual recount of controversial May parliament polls
2018-08-07
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Iraq concluded on Monday the manual recount of votes for the parliament elections held in May, its electoral commission has announced, wrapping up a process that followed accusations of forgery.

The recount was launched early July at polling stations where complaints of vote manipulation had been filed as per a ruling by the Federal Court.

Those were the first polls Iraq held for the 329-seat chamber since declaring the defeat of Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
Lions of Islam late 2017.

The polls put the bloc sponsored by Shia holy man Moqtada Tater al-Sadr
... the Iranian catspaw holy man who was 22 years old in 2003 and was nearing 40 in 2010. He spends most of his time in Iran, safely out of the line of fire, where he's learning to be an ayatollah...
first, with the bloc led by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi coming third.

U.N. Hails 'Credible' Iraq Vote Recount

[AnNahar] The United Nations on Monday hailed Iraq's "credible" vote recount, which paves the way for a government to be formed nearly three months after polls.

Iraq's May 12 parliamentary elections were marred by allegations of fraud, prompting the country's supreme court to order a partial manual recount.

As an official announced the checks had concluded, the U.N. said it had observed the recount and found it to be "conducted in a manner that is credible, professional and transparent."

"We are very pleased that it's been concluded and we look forward to the next steps in this process towards the formation of the new government," said a statement by Alice Walpole, a U.N. envoy to Iraq.

Iraqi officials have not specified when the results will be announced, after which lawmakers will take their seats in parliament, elect a president and begin the process for forming a government.

Judge Laith Hamza, spokesman for the electoral commission, said Monday the recount "in all polling stations in Iraq and abroad where complaints were registered has ended".

The commission decided not to undertake such checks for Al-Russafa, one of the largest voting districts in eastern Baghdad, where a fire in June ripped through Iraq's biggest ballot warehouse. In the arson attack "882 ballot boxes entirely went up in smoke", Hamza said in a statement, despite authorities at the time suggesting the votes were saved. Three police officers and an electoral commission employee were arrested over the blaze.

"The official results will be announced shortly," said Imad Jamil, responsible for the vote in Al-Russafa.

The recount will not however change the balance of power in the new parliament. Each list should keep the same number of seats announced in May, but the lawmakers elected could be modified, according to experts. When results were initially announced in May, the anti-graft alliance of nationalist cleric Moqtada Sadr had won the largest number of seats.

The election saw a record low turnout of 44.5 percent, with many Iraqis disillusioned by the political class.

Iraq has seen a month of unrest since protests erupted in the south of the country and spread to Baghdad, with demonstrators rallying against a lack of public services and jobs.
Posted by:trailing wife

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