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| Iraq |
| Iraq to release results of investigation into voting complaints |
| 2006-01-16 |
| Iraq's election commission will announce results of its investigation into allegations of vote fraud on Monday, officials said, while the tribunal overseeing Saddam Hussein's trial confirmed the chief judge has asked to resign. The Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, or IECI, has worked through the 50 or so serious complaints of voter fraud lodged after the Dec. 15 election, Safwat Rashid, an official with the panel, said Sunday. About 2,000 complaints were filed overall, but the commission said only 50 had the potential to change vote totals. The governing United Iraqi Alliance, a Shiite religious bloc, has a strong lead, according to preliminary results. But it will not win enough seats in the 275-member parliament to avoid a coalition with Sunni Arab and Kurdish parties. Final election results have been delayed by Sunni Arab complaints of fraud. Although leading politicians have expressed hopes a government could be formed in February, most experts and officials agree it could take two to three months, as it did after the January 2005 elections for an interim government. Some 900 ballot boxes were checked for problems and a minority of those will be thrown out, Rashid said. He refused to say how many but noted the boxes hold only about 500 votes, meaning the overall effect would be minimal. About 70 percent of registered Iraqis voted, casting about 11 million votes nationwide. The commission has not worked through the other 1,930 or so complaints, another elections official said. Those less serious charges would not change any vote totals but could result in fines, he said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. The international team assessing the IECI's handling of the voting process also said it would release its final report on Thursday. The IECI is expected to release uncertified final results shortly after that, perhaps as soon as this coming weekend. "The work of the team has been going fast, so we decided there is no need for a preliminary report," Mazin Shuaib of the International Mission for Iraqi Elections said. More complaints could be lodged after that, and it could take up to two weeks to study those complaints. Certified results would then be announced - likely sometime in early February - opening the way for negotiations in earnest over a coalition government. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |