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Baghdad begins vote recount requested by PM
[Al Arabiya Latest] Iraqi officials started on Mondays recounting ballots for Baghdad province, with international observers in attendance, as demanded by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who narrowly lost a March 7 parliamentary election.Election officials said the manual recount could take between two to three weeks. The recount follows a successful appeal by Maliki, who alleged that he had lost votes because of violations at polling centers in Baghdad. He demanded recounts in five provinces but was only granted one in Baghdad, which accounts for about a fifth of parliament's 325 seats. "We will count 600 boxes today," Qassim al-Abbudi, an official with the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), told reporters at the Rasheed hotel in the Iraqi capital where the recount is taking place. Officials from the United Nations and U.S. embassy are monitoring the recount. Monday's recount and other challenges to the results have delayed the seating of the new legislature and raised fears that the political uncertainty could lead to an uptick in violence. Baghdad was by far the biggest prize in the election almost two months ago, with 70 seats on offer. The recount is one of a series of delays that has stopped a new government being formed. Former premier Iyad Allawi's secular Iraqiya coalition won the election, defeating Maliki by 91 votes to 89, according to results still to be ratified by the Supreme Court. Both need 163 seats to form a majority government but coalition talks with smaller parties appear to have stalled. Maliki won the vote in Baghdad -- taking 26 seats compared to Allawi's 24 -- in what was the second national election in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led ouster of dictator Saddam Hussein. Posted by: Fred 2010-05-04 |
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