Abadi dismisses demands for election re-run
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi dismissed demands for a re-run of the country’s parliamentary elections amid allegations of ballot rigging.
The United Nations and Iraqi politicians have called for an investigation into complaints about electoral fraud and demands for manual recounts in some districts, which raises doubts about the legitimacy of the country’s vote.
“We call on the commission to be transparent and to ensure the rights of voters. The electoral auditing process should reveal the [alleged] violations, but the election process cannot be repeated,” Mr Al Abadi said on Tuesday during a press conference.
Voting was conducted electronically for the first time in an effort to reduce fraud.
The repeat vote being sought is not expected to have an effect upon the surprising results that put Shiite cleric Moqtada Al Sadr’s Marching Towards Reform bloc as the biggest winner.
The vote dealt a blow to the incumbent prime minister, whose Victory Alliance came in third. But he could still emerge as a compromise candidate palatable to all sides because he has managed the competing interests of the US and Iran – unwitting allies in the war against ISIS – during his term in office.
A recent meeting between Mr Abadi and Mr Al Sadr indicated that they could form an alliance in the new government.
Mr Al Abadi said that an agreement is “almost complete” with Mr Al Sadr’s bloc to form a government of “strong technocrats”.
Meanwhile, the US contacted members of Mr Al Sadr’s alliance yesterday after his victory gave him the upper hand in forming Iraq’s next government.
Dhiaa Al Asadi, a top aide to the cleric, said officials in Washington had used intermediaries to initiate contact with members of his bloc.
“They asked what the position of the Sadrist movement will be when they come to power. Are they going to reinvent or invoke the Mahdi army or re-employ them? Are they going to attack American forces in Iraq?” he told Reuters.
Mr Al Sadr’s Mahdi militia battled against US forces after they toppled former dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003, but despite their past they share common grounds.
Washington and Mr Al Sadr agree on their opposition to Iranian influence in Iraq, where it arms, trains and funds Shiite militias and nurtures close ties with many politicians.
More than 15 bloody years since the ousting of Saddam, there is deep scepticism about the country’s political system, which is dominated by an elite seen as corrupt and sectarian.