Iraq electoral body showed 'incompetence’ in managing elections: Fatih Alliance
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The head of an Iranian-backed political bloc that performed poorly in Iraq’s parliamentary elections described the electoral commission on Saturday as incompetent in handling the polling process.
“The election results proved the incompetence of the [electoral] commission to manage it [the vote],” leader of Fatih Alliance Hadi al-Amiri told reporters in a press conference.
The electoral body committed a number of violations as it “claimed the preliminary results represented 94% of the vote, while it represented 79% only,” he added. The alliance submitted six reports that show “technical and legal violations” committed in the elections to the Federal Court, Amiri noted.
Iraq held a parliamentary election on October 10. The Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) announced the official results on Tuesday, after resolving all of the complaints submitted by objecting parties.
Iran-backed parties, most notably the Fatih Alliance, emerged as one of the major losers in the parliamentary election, according to the official results. The parties alleged fraud and issued statements rejecting the results.
Amiri also doubted the accuracy of the voting machines.
IHEC announced preliminary results a day after the vote. On October 17, it released the final preliminary results following the manual count of polling stations that were not electrically counted due to technical issues, giving parties the option to file complaints about the updated results.
The commission gave parties and candidates the option to appeal against the results more than once, which led some parties to question the legitimacy of the vote, according to Amiri.
IHEC completed an inspection and manual recount of votes from thousands of stations that were the subject of complaints on November 8. Most of the appeals were rejected for lack of evidence or detail. It began sending its appeal investigations to the judiciary on Sunday.
Amiri stressed that his alliance continues to reject the election results and send appeals to the Federal Court.
The Fatih Alliance, which is affiliated with the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF or Hashd al-Shaabi in Arabic), was the second-largest bloc in the outgoing parliament with 48 seats. It won just 17 seats, according to the official results.
PMF-allied parties, including Fatih, have previously rallied against the election results.
“The election results proved the incompetence of the [electoral] commission to manage it [the vote],” leader of Fatih Alliance Hadi al-Amiri told reporters in a press conference.
The electoral body committed a number of violations as it “claimed the preliminary results represented 94% of the vote, while it represented 79% only,” he added. The alliance submitted six reports that show “technical and legal violations” committed in the elections to the Federal Court, Amiri noted.
Iraq held a parliamentary election on October 10. The Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) announced the official results on Tuesday, after resolving all of the complaints submitted by objecting parties.
Iran-backed parties, most notably the Fatih Alliance, emerged as one of the major losers in the parliamentary election, according to the official results. The parties alleged fraud and issued statements rejecting the results.
Amiri also doubted the accuracy of the voting machines.
IHEC announced preliminary results a day after the vote. On October 17, it released the final preliminary results following the manual count of polling stations that were not electrically counted due to technical issues, giving parties the option to file complaints about the updated results.
The commission gave parties and candidates the option to appeal against the results more than once, which led some parties to question the legitimacy of the vote, according to Amiri.
IHEC completed an inspection and manual recount of votes from thousands of stations that were the subject of complaints on November 8. Most of the appeals were rejected for lack of evidence or detail. It began sending its appeal investigations to the judiciary on Sunday.
Amiri stressed that his alliance continues to reject the election results and send appeals to the Federal Court.
The Fatih Alliance, which is affiliated with the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF or Hashd al-Shaabi in Arabic), was the second-largest bloc in the outgoing parliament with 48 seats. It won just 17 seats, according to the official results.
PMF-allied parties, including Fatih, have previously rallied against the election results.