Vote recount in Duhok, Salahuddin concluded; Anbar, Nineveh next

Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) on Monday finished the partial manual recount of ballot boxes from the contested May 12 national election for the provinces of Duhok and Salahuddin and said it was to start the process on Tuesday morning for Nineveh and Anbar.

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) on Monday finished the partial manual recount of ballot boxes from the contested May 12 national election for the provinces of Duhok and Salahuddin and said it was to start the process on Tuesday morning for Nineveh and Anbar.

“The Board of Commissioners and the judges assigned to oversee of manual recounting and sorting,” have completed the process “for the 107 ballot boxes against which complaints were lodged,” IHEC spokesman Laith Jabir Hamza said in a statement on Monday.

Contested ballot boxes for Salahuddin and Anbar have been stored in the capital and are being counted at the Baghdad International Fair complex.

Recounting is done under the supervision of judges appointed by the Federal Supreme Court of Iraq after the Supreme Court had approved a resolution by the Iraqi Parliament that ordered it after widespread allegations of voter fraud. Only ballot boxes about which complaints of tampering had been formally lodged are being recounted.

IHEC will announce the results of the recount on an as yet unspecified date after its conclusion; in the meantime, the political forces of Iraq continue their negotiations for the formation of the next government.

Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) Spokesperson Mahmood Mohammed, after a joint meeting on Monday with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), called on other Kurdish parties to end their boycotts, criticism, and appeals of the election when the final results are announced.

Mohammed stated that both parties’ doors are always open for others to join the KDP and PUK, currently in efforts to draft a national project that represents the interests of the Kurdish people in the next government when dealing with Iraqi parties.

Editing by John J.Catherine