Iraqi political forces called on the President of the Republic, Barham Salih, to intervene to spare the country "more dangerous" consequences in light of the crisis in the results of the parliamentary elections, and demanded a manual recount in all polling stations that took place on the tenth of October.

This came in a statement issued by the office of the leader of the "State of Law" coalition, former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, in the name of "the national forces objecting to the election results", after a meeting held on Sunday at the coalition office in Baghdad.

These forces confirmed - in the first statement issued in their name - that they had agreed to confirm their rejection of the announced results and the "selective" method of the Electoral Commission in dealing with legal challenges.

The objectors demanded the commission "to seriously consider all the appeals submitted to it and to conduct a comprehensive manual counting and sorting for all stations with complete transparency and to correct the errors that accompanied the process of counting and announcing the votes," according to the statement.

They called on the President of the Republic, Barham Salih, to "intervene as a protector of the constitution to prevent events from heading towards something more dangerous."

Notable objectors

Among the most prominent objectors to the election results are the "Al-Fateh" coalition, a political umbrella for many Shiite factions that lost many seats, as well as the "State Forces" coalition led by the leader of the Wisdom Movement Ammar al-Hakim and former Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.

The opposition forces had warned last week that proceeding with these results "threatens civil peace", which raised fears of a possible outbreak of fighting in the country.

According to preliminary results, the "Sadr bloc" loyal to Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr came first with 73 seats out of 329.

The bloc loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr came first with 73 seats (Reuters)

For its part, the Independent High Electoral Commission says that it is continuing to consider the appeals submitted by the parties objecting to the results, and that these appeals will be sent with a recommendation to the judicial authority of the Electoral Commission for decision in accordance with the law.

The commission added in a statement that it will announce the final result after the procedures for manual counting and sorting are completed in the constituencies that have doubts about the validity of their results.

She explained that she will start the procedures for manual counting and sorting of the contested districts, starting from Nineveh Governorate, and starting on October 27, and the rest of the governorates will follow them according to a timetable prepared in advance and in the presence of representatives of political entities.

Green Zone sit-in

Meanwhile, supporters of the factions objecting to the election results continued their sit-in in front of the Green Zone in the center of the capital, Baghdad, for the sixth consecutive day, while anticipation prevails beyond the 72-hour deadline granted by the sit-in’s organizing committee to the Electoral Commission to recover what it described as the stolen votes.

For his part, the leader of the Sadrist movement, Muqtada al-Sadr, reiterated his rejection of the interference of neighboring countries in the country's internal affairs, threatening to resort to international diplomatic methods to prevent this.

Al-Sadr - whose bloc came ahead of all the competing blocs in the elections - said in a statement distributed to journalists yesterday, Sunday, that Iraq's policy in dealing with neighboring countries in the next stage is based on the non-interference of these countries in its internal affairs and the activation of bilateral relations. In all security, commercial and diplomatic fields.

He stressed that Iraq will work to protect borders, ports and airports, and said that the issuance of any reactions, which is a violation of Iraqi sovereignty, will be a door to reducing diplomatic representation or other strict measures in force internationally and regionally.