KDP supports Supreme Court ruling on Iraq election recount: Official

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Khasro Goran, a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s (KDP) Leadership Council, announced on Thursday his party’s support for the Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council (ISJC) ruling earlier that day, which ordered a manual recount of the results of the May 12 national election.

“We never disagreed with a manual ballot recount,” Goran said, reiterating KDP’s neutrality toward the demand made in recent weeks by various other political parties to the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) amid allegations of electoral fraud.

Goran mentioned that his party had previously filed an official complaint to the ISJC in response to the “unconstitutionality” of the “cancellation of the Peshmerga's and IDP's (those in displacement camps) votes.”

One week ago, security forces from Sulaimani took to the streets in protest of the parliament’s resolution to void early votes made by security forces, a nullification restricted to the Kurdistan Region only.

The KDP complaint mentioned by Goran was referenced in the text of the Supreme Court decision as one of three complaints received and taken under advisement when deciding to reinstate the cancelled votes.

Along with the earlier nullification by early voters and IDP's, votes by Iraqis who cast ballots abroad were also ordered cancelled by the parliament resolution and overturned on Thursday.

Another high court, the Iraqi Higher Judicial Council (IHJC) had sided with parliament’s decision, a day after it was voted on, leading some to believe that the issue was settled, but it is the ISJS, not any other court has the final say on elections, making it unclear why the IHJC ruling had been made.

Regarding Erbil and Dohuk, where the KDP got a majority of votes, he said he was unconcerned about the integrity of the tally and said recounts there were ‘unnecessary,’ though he did not voice any opposition to them.

He did, however, express doubts about the legitimacy of results in the provinces of Sulaimani and Nineveh.

“If the votes of Nineveh Province are manually recounted, we foresee an increase in the number of seats for the KDP from the six seats we have to seven.”

The KDP had not registered in Kirkuk, a disputed territory between Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). Describing it as an “invaded” territory, a reference to the October attack by Iraqi forces and Hashd al-Shaabi militias which pushed Peshmerga forces from it.

“The KDP is willing to support and work with the [nine] judges,” Goran said, about the officials that have replaced IHEC commissioners to oversee the national manual recount.

Editing by John J. Catherine