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No change in Iraq election result after recount
[Al Arabiya Latest] A recount of votes cast in Baghdad did not change the results of Iraq's March election, an electoral official said Sunday, preserving a narrow victory for the Sunni-backed candidate over the Shiite prime minister.Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki demanded the recount after losing out by two seats to challenger, Ayad Allawi and alleging fraud. The province, which includes the capital, accounts for so many seats in parliament that a significant change in the vote tally could have tilted the overall results in al-Maliki's favor. The election results must still be ratified by the Supreme Court, but the announcement removed a major hurdle to the seating of the new 325-member legislature. Other challenges to the election results have delayed the formation of a new government and raised fears the political uncertainty could lead to a surge in violence. An Iraq election commissioner, Qassim al-Abboudi, said that results of the recount, "are compatible" with the original count of the March 7 vote. "The number of the seats are still the same and didn't change," al-Abboudi told a news conference Sunday. He said the difference in the recount amounted to about 3,000 votes, which did not change al-Maliki's two-seat win over Allawi in Baghdad or the overall outcome across the country. Baghdad accounts for about a fifth of the parliament seats. al-Maliki beat out Allawi in Baghdad but not enough to give him the lead around the country. Allawi gained heavy support from Iraq's minority Sunni community, giving him 91 seats to al-Maliki's 89 seats. The end of a recount of votes in Baghdad opens the way for Iraq's March 7 election results to be finally certified more than two months after the ballot, and for coalition-forming talks to begin in earnest. It does not mean the pace of government formation will necessarily pick up, and the ingredients are still in place for a protracted political vacuum in which sectarian tensions could lead to violence as U.S. troops pack up and start to leave. The sectarian warfare between once dominant Sunnis and majority Shiites that was kicked off after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion has subsided substantially since its peak in 2006/07. But a string of attacks by a weakened yet still lethal Sunni Islamist insurgency since the ballot has fuelled fears of a slide back into broad bloodshed that could derail U.S. plans to end combat operations in August ahead of a full pullout in 2011. Posted by: Fred 2010-05-17 |
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