The Independent High Electoral Commission for Iraq announced - today, Monday - that the first stages of the sorting and counting process will take place manually in (70) stations in Nineveh Governorate (in the north of the country) next Wednesday.
Meanwhile, anticipation prevails beyond the 72-hour deadline granted by the sit-in organizing committee to the Electoral Commission to "restore the stolen votes."
The media office of the commission said - in a statement - "belief in the transparency of the electoral process and dealing seriously with the requests for appeals submitted to it, (the commission) will start the first stages of the manual counting and sorting process at 70 stations in Nineveh Governorate."
The statement added that "the process will take place in the presence of political party agents, candidates, observers and the media."
She explained that she will be counting and sorting manually in the rest of the Iraqi provinces after Nineveh, according to a timetable that was prepared in advance, and in the presence of representatives of political entities.
The Commission had announced its acceptance of re-counting and manual counting of 297 electoral stations in 13 Iraqi provinces based on appeals and complaints submitted by the blocs and coalitions objecting to the results of the parliamentary elections.
The commission stated on Sunday that it is continuing to consider the appeals submitted by the parties objecting to the results of the legislative elections, 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 completion of the procedures for manual counting and sorting in the districts that have doubts about the validity of their results.
Wait for the deadline
Anticipation prevails after the expiry of the 72-hour deadline granted by the sit-in organizing committee to the Electoral Commission to "restore the stolen votes," as they described it, which expires on Monday evening.
Supporters of the factions objecting to the results of the parliamentary elections in Iraq continue their sit-in in front of the Green Zone, in the center of the capital, Baghdad, for the seventh day in a row.
Yesterday, Sunday, the Iraqi political forces "objecting the election results" agreed during a meeting in the office of the head of the State of Law coalition, Nuri al-Maliki, to confirm their rejection of the announced results, and their rejection of what they said was a selective method for the Electoral Commission in dealing with legal challenges.
And she demanded correcting the errors that she said accompanied the process of counting and announcing the votes.
She called on the President of the Republic, Barham Salih, to intervene as a protector of the constitution to prevent events from moving towards something more dangerous.
She thanked the security forces for protecting the peaceful demonstrators, and expressed their support for the legitimate demands and the continuation of all constitutionally available activities to achieve this.
Al-Maliki preceded the meeting by clarifying that the meeting aims to discuss the crisis of results and limit its repercussions, and denied that the meeting formed a political alliance.
For his part, the victory coalition - led by former Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi - said that the goal of the meeting called by al-Maliki was to remove objections to the results of the legislative elections from the "sectarian framework towards the national space."
He added - in a statement before the meeting - that the meeting "aims to give visions and remedies to remedy the current crisis, and to ensure the continuation of the democratic process within tracks that meet the integrity of the regime and represent the people."
The coalition said that the meeting would work "to find a national dialogue to study ways to end the crisis, and not to create a political alliance or to form the largest bloc or to exclude any political party."
Al-Sadr: Any interference in Iraqi affairs will be a door to reducing diplomatic representation and strict measures (Reuters)
chest warns
For his part, the leader of the Sadrist movement, Muqtada al-Sadr, warned against external interference with the outcomes of the electoral process and the subsequent government formation process, and threatened to resort to international diplomatic methods to prevent this.
Al-Sadr said - yesterday, Sunday - whose bloc came ahead of all the competing blocs in the recent legislative elections, in a statement distributed to journalists, that Iraq's policy in dealing with neighboring countries in the next stage is based on the non-interference of neighboring countries in its internal affairs and non-interference in their affairs. And activating bilateral relations in all fields of security, trade and diplomacy.
He added that "dealing with neighboring countries will be through opening a high-level dialogue to prevent interference at all, and if there is a response, this is welcome, otherwise international diplomatic methods will be resorted to to prevent this."
He stressed that Iraq will work to protect borders, ports and airports, and tighten dealings with this matter, considering that the issuance of any reactions, which are considered a violation of Iraqi sovereignty, will be a door to reducing diplomatic representation or other strict measures in force internationally and regionally.