Kurdish party objects to only partial recount of votes in Iraq

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A leading Kurdish political party on Wednesday criticized an announced decision to implement an only partial recount of the ballots cast in May's contested national elections.

On June 21, Iraq’s Supreme Court ruled in favor of a parliamentary resolution to manually recount ballots from the election and to assign a panel of judges to oversee the process, replacing commissioners from the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC).

The panel, however, announced on Sunday that they would recount votes only at polling stations where official complaints of fraud had been made.

“Parliament has previously decided on the issue,” Gorran member Karzan Gardy told Kurdistan 24, clarifying that the party had lodged official complaints to IHEC.

"The Gorran Movement objects to the commission’s decision and awaits a response.”

Gorran, or the "Movement for Change," was one of the Kurdish parties that alleged fraud as soon as initial results for the May 12 election were announced, squarely rejecting the results and even calling for an entirely new vote.

According to those results, the party lost four of the nine seats in the Iraqi parliament that it took in the previous election.

Some of the less prominent parties are still opting to wait for the results of the recount, now underway, before they enter into negotiations aimed at forming the next government. Some have spoken of “real votes” from the election as part of their accusation of fraud and hint at their readiness to work together with other like-minded parties.

Multiple instances of fraud were claimed by various parties in the province of Kirkuk, where the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan maintained its majority of six seats.

On Monday, Turkmen parties also objected to the judges' decision to conduct only a partial recount, demanding the Supreme Court’s “actual” ruling be implemented in the area. One party official told Kurdistan 24, “Those who fear fraud are afraid of the manual recount.”

“The federal court’s decision is clear that requires the manual recount of all votes across Iraq, but now the judges came up with a different interpretation,” said Ali Mufti, the spokesman for the Turkmeneli Party.

Iraqi law expert Halmat Gharib told Kurdistan 24 that he saw such objections as “illogical,” and said he tended to disagree with the possibility of a complete manual recount.

“The complaining parties can still object to the results of the [partial] manual recount,” he pointed out, adding that he felt it would be constructive to do so, as it would be a step toward restoring public faith in Iraqi elections and “remove doubts and criticisms.”

Editing by John J. Catherine

(Kurdistan 24 correspondent Nawras Abdulla contributed to this report)