For the fourth week in a row, sit-ins by supporters of parties rejecting the results of the legislative elections are continuing in Iraq, demanding a manual re-counting. The protesters are also demanding an investigation into the casualties of protesters during confrontations with the security forces early last week.
About two thousand supporters of the popular crowd demonstrated on Friday at one of the entrances to the fortified Green Zone in the center of the capital, Baghdad, in protest against the "fraud" they say affected the results of the early elections that took place more than a month ago, in a move that comes days after the prime minister was subjected to an assassination attempt.
Amid a heavy deployment of security forces, the demonstrators raised banners bearing the slogan of the Popular Mobilization and pictures of demonstrators who say they were killed in clashes that occurred last week in the same area.
The demonstrators carried Iraqi flags and banners with their demands: "The trial of (Prime Minister) Mustafa Al-Kazemi, the trial of the High Elections Commission, the trial of the killers of the demonstrators, and the annulment of the election results," chanting slogans condemning the Prime Minister.
The protesters set up their tents in front of the Green Zone gate in preparation for completing their sit-in, which they started about a week ago, while others have also camped about 4 weeks ago in front of a second gate of this fortified security zone.
The sit-in developed last week into confrontations with the security forces, when protesters tried to storm the Green Zone, which houses government headquarters, including the High Elections Commission and foreign embassies, especially the United States embassy.
This comes as the High Electoral Commission finished on Monday the recounting of the votes following the appeals submitted to it, and found that they are identical to the preliminary results.
Preliminary results indicate that the Sadrist movement led by Muqtada al-Sadr won more than 70 seats, thus it will again have the largest bloc in Parliament, but it does not have the majority in it. On the other hand, the Al-Fateh Alliance representing the Popular Mobilization lost about a third of its seats.