Iraq Elections Results Challenged Amidst Celebration
The Independent Electoral Commission said Tuesday that it received several complaints from political groups challenging the results of Iraq's first election in 50 years.
One day after world leaders hailed the results of Iraq's first election in 50 years as the beginning of democracy in the war-torn nation, the Independent Electoral Commission said Tuesday that it received several complaints from political groups challenging the results. In the final election results, announced Sunday, clergy-backed Shiites and independence-minded Kurds swept to victory.
"We received six complaints until now, but there are other complaints sent by e-mail and we haven't retrieved them yet," Adel al-Lami, an official with the electoral commission said, as reported by the Associated Press.
In addition to complaints filed by political groups, the commission received 359 complaints from inside and outside even before the results were announced from tribal congregations and citizens who were not able to vote.
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In Bartala, a town near the northwestern Iraqi city of Mosul, Commission official Izzedine al-Mahmoudi told reporters last week that 15,188 people were unable to cast ballots in Iraq's historic Jan. 30 elections because poll workers did not report to work because of security concerns.
Gunmen also looted some polling places, stealing ballot papers, al-Mahmoudi said, according to AP.
"There are a number of polling stations whose electoral material was looted by gunmen, and workers in the polling stations in many areas were targeted by gunmen," he said. "They stole the ballot boxes and they tried to bribe the workers."
Some northern Iraqi politicians, including representatives of Sunni Arab and Christian communities, had alleged that large numbers of their constituents were unable to vote because of electoral mismanagement or an attempt to keep them from the polls.
In addition, villages in the Iraq's Nineveh province were reportedly barred from the general Iraqi elections because of the absence of polling stations.
Susan Patto, chief of staff to the secretary general of the Assyrian Democratic Movement in Iraq, said last week that officials failed to deliver ballot boxes to five towns in the Ninevah Plain of Northern Iraq--all predominantly populated by Christian Assyrians.
"The people of those areas went to vote. When they found there were no boxes, they headed to our centers," Patto said, as reported by the Decatur Daily.
Simon George, co-director of an Assyrian satellite television station, gave a similar report, saying he received "at least 100 calls" from Assyrians complaining about being deprived of the vote in Christian villages around Mosul.
According to AP, parties have until Wednesday to challenge the results that saw the clergy-backed United Iraqi Alliance scoop 48 percent of the vote for the National Assembly. After the commission investigates the complaints, the results will be certified and the commission will announce the exact number of seats each winner will take.
