Iraq Parliament orders complete election recount

Baghdad, June 6: Iraq’s Parliament on Wednesday ordered a manual recount of the May 12 legislative elections and sacked the commission which oversaw the polls that resulted in a surprise victory for a populist Shia cleric.

After several failed attempts because of a lack of quorum, 173 members of the outgoing 328- seat house met to order a recount at all polling stations, covering almost 11 million votes, in response to charges of electoral fraud.

The nine- member independent commission was dismissed and is to be replaced by judges.

Confusion has gripped Iraq since the vote won by Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr's electoral alliance with communists, even with negotiations to form a new government underway. Since last month's victory of anti- establishment electoral lists, longtime political figures pushed out by Iraqi voters hoping for change have been calling for a recount.

According to intelligence services, tests of electronic voting machines — used for the first time in Iraqi elections — produced varied results, appearing to give credence to the fraud claims.

Parliament already voted last week to annul After several failed attempts because of a lack of quorum, 173 members of the outgoing 328- seat house met to order a recount at all polling stations

The nine- member independent commission was dismissed and is to be replaced by judges

the ballots of displaced

Iraqis and those living abroad.

Meanwhile, Iraqi judicial authorities last week issued an arrest warrant for a Kurdish politician at the centre of last year's failed independence bid, a source from within the provincial administration said Sunday.

Rebwar Talabani, head of the Kirkuk Provincial Council, was one of the architects of the September referendum in which an overwhelming majority backed independence for Iraqi Kurdistan.

The plebiscite was branded illegal by Baghdad, which in the wake of the vote sent troops into the disputed city of Kirkuk and retook territory in the oil- rich region.