Iraqi VP’s Coalition joins Parliament speaker’s call for redo of elections

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Al-Wataniya Coalition, led by Iraqi Vice-President Ayad Allawi, has called for a redo of the parliamentary elections after a fire at a voting ballot warehouse in Baghdad.

A fire broke out on Sunday at a warehouse in the al-Rusafa district of the Iraqi capital Baghdad which stored the May 12 Iraqi parliamentary election ballot boxes. 

In a statement released following the incident, al-Wataniya demanded the termination of all elections results and a redo of the polls at a later time until conditions were met for a new vote.

“Al-Wataniya Coalition, led by Ayad Allawi, calls for a redo of the parliamentary elections while keeping the current cabinet as a caretaker government to govern the country until the holding of new elections,” it read.

The Coalition referred to unclear measures taken by the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) during the electronic voting as the people were used to manual voting in previous elections.

In a separate statement on Monday, Allawi called for a referendum to decide on whether to approve the results of the May 12 elections or redo the polls.

Iraqi Parliament Speaker Salim al-Jabouri, meanwhile, claimed the fire was a “planned crime aimed at hiding cases of manipulation and falsification of votes and deceiving the Iraqi people and changing their will and choice.”

“We call for re-election,” Jabouri said, claiming there was proof that “rigging and manipulation of the [vote] results had taken place.” He also demanded the prosecution of those who contributed to the “fraud.”

On June 6, the Iraqi Parliament decided to freeze the work of the IHEC, assigning nine judges to run the commission to facilitate a manual recount of votes for the entire elections process across Iraq.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany