Iraq’s Election Commission Rejects Nouri al-Maliki’s Demand for Vote Recount

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Source: Times Online

Iraq’s election commission last night rejected a call by the Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, for a recount of ballots in the March 7 polls, as his main rival held on to a narrow lead.

With 95 per cent of the votes counted, Mr al-Maliki’s electoral list was a few thousand votes behind that of Ayad Allawi, Iraq’s first Prime Minister after the official end of the US-led occupation. Both men have made allegations of irregularities in the poll and thus put themselves in a position to cry foul if they should lose. Mr al-Maliki insisted that a recount was necessary “to prevent the security situation from deteriorating and avoid the return of violence”. He tried to bully the commission into starting a lengthy review process in the hope of slowing down Mr Allawi’s momentum.

Last week Mr Allawi protested strongly against “massive fraud”, but stopped pressing the claim once he appeared to be winning and is now demanding results as soon as possible. Only questions over disputed votes in some provinces are holding up the process. The commission disappointed both the front-runners when it said that it would continue the count as normal but at its much-derided slow pace. A recount could simply not be done, it said.

“We can’t start all over again and count the votes manually,” said Saad al-Rawi, of the Independent High Electoral Commission. “We have more than 50,000 polling stations and 350,000 election officials. Do they want us to resend all the ballot boxes back to the stations and call back all the officials?”

more: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article7070470.ece

President Jalal Talabani also http://www.newstimes.com/news/article/Recount-calls-add-to-Iraq-s-political-tension-413946.php">called for a recount.