The Independent High Electoral Commission in Iraq begins - this morning, Wednesday - manual recounting, after accepting 46 appeals and complaints from those objecting to the preliminary results of the elections, while supporters of the parties rejecting the results of the legislative elections continue their sit-in for the ninth consecutive day.

Imad Jamil Mohsen, a member of the media team of the Electoral Commission, stated that the commission had received 1,400 appeals and complaints from blocs, parties and candidates objecting to the preliminary results of the elections - which were held on October 10, and a study of 1,277 of them was completed. Evidence calls for recounting, and 1,231 complaints were rejected for lack of evidence to appeal.

Mohsen indicated that the Electoral Commission will start this morning, Wednesday, recounting in 800 electoral stations distributed over a number of governorates, most notably Baghdad, Nineveh, Salah al-Din, Basra, Erbil, Muthanna and Dhi Qar, in the presence of observers from the objecting entities, international observers and the media.

Included centers

He added that the manual counting and recounting will take place in Baghdad for all governorates from eight in the morning until five in the evening, for the stations that were accepted for appeal due to the presence of evidence related to differences in the number of votes and scrutiny, as well as some problems that accompanied the electoral process.


For the first time in Iraq, voters passed the ballot papers on electronic devices before placing them in the boxes. As soon as they were closed, the results were sent over the Internet to the commission’s headquarters in Baghdad. The committees also uploaded the results to storage slides and sent them to the commission to ensure that they were not tampered with.

Al-Jazeera correspondent in Baghdad said that the sit-in area has witnessed calm since Tuesday, a day after the deadline given by the Organizing Committee for Demonstrations to the Electoral Commission expired, in order to manually recount and count the votes for all electoral centers in the country.

Iraqi President Barham Salih said that objections to the electoral process are acceptable and guaranteed in electoral laws and regulations and must be followed up, stressing the role of the Electoral Commission and the judicial body competent to consider all complaints and appeals submitted professionally and impartially.

In a statement, Saleh pointed to the need to unite ranks and dialogue to solve problems and differences in viewpoints, pointing out the importance of moving towards national benefits, and forming a parliament that expresses the people's will and aspirations for reform and development.

Al-Jazeera correspondent in Baghdad said that the sit-in area has witnessed calm since Tuesday, a day after the deadline given by the Organizing Committee for Demonstrations to the Electoral Commission expired.

On the other hand, the Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq al-Sadiqoon movement, led by Qais Khazali, accused the United Nations Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) of granting the task of examining the parliamentary elections to a company whose shares are mostly Israeli.

A spokesman for the movement's political bureau, Mahmoud Al-Rabee, said - via his Twitter account - that "the only company out of 10 examining companies nominated by the United Nations and the commission had to contract with it, it was said that it was German, and after research and investigation it was found that it is a multinational company, most of whose shares are Israeli." Al-Rubaie indicated that this "means that the United Nations has handed over the commission and the elections to the Israelis to manipulate their results."

Allawi's invitation

For his part, the National Coalition in Iraq, led by Iyad Allawi, called on the Election Commission to move quickly to spare the country a slide, and to respond to the demands of the national forces objecting to the election results.

The coalition said - in the statement - that failure to meet these demands would plunge the country into a crisis whose results could not be imagined, pointing out that the UN Security Council's consideration that the elections were fair indicates a pre-position to harm Iraq and its democratic experience.

It is noteworthy that the preliminary results of the elections resulted in the Sadrist bloc - affiliated with Muqtada al-Sadr - with 73 seats out of 329, while the Progress bloc - led by dissolved Parliament Speaker Muhammad al-Halbousi - won 38 seats, followed by the State of Law bloc - led by former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki - with 34 seats.