Iran-backed al-Fatih Coalition claims they received highest votes in Iraqi elections

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Iranian-backed Hashd al-Shaabi’s al-Fatih (Conquest) coalition has claimed victory in the Iraqi parliamentary elections despite conflicting reports from opposition parties.

During a press conference in Baghdad on Sunday, the spokesperson for the al-Fatih Coalition, Ahmed al-Assadi, said his coalition had won first place in the general elections across Iraq.

“Al-Fatih Coalition is leading the race in the elections across the country, and we have received the highest percentage of votes in the polls,” the spokesperson claimed.

Assadi said the Coalition had some concerns regarding the results of the elections and would call for a manual vote count if reports of fraud were proven to be true, warning that any manipulation of the elections results is unacceptable.

“The Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) has accepted al-Fatih’s request to perform manual counts for five percent of votes at ballot stations across Iraq,” he said, noting that his coalition maintains trust in the IHEC’s transparent procedures.

Meanwhile, according to a security official and a source from the IHEC quoted by Reuters, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s al-Nasr list appears to be leading Iraq’s national elections race followed by influential Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s alliance.

On Saturday, people across Iraq and the Kurdistan Region took part in national legislative elections, the first since the defeat of the Islamic State.

Polls opened at 7:00 a.m. and closed at 6:00 p.m.

Turnout stood at 44.5 percent, according to the IHEC. It is the lowest voter turnout rate in Iraq in the past 13 years.

In the 2014 elections, roughly 60 percent headed to the polls.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany