AL SADR’S VICTORY IS CONFIRMED BY RECOUNT OF IRAQ POLL
Shiite cleric’s bloc will take central role in formation of government
Populist cleric Moqtada Al Sadr retained his lead in Iraq’s May parliamentary election, a nationwide vote recount showed on Friday.
The result, released by Iraq’s Independent High Election Commission, confirms him in a position to play a central role in forming the country’s next government.
The recount did not alter the initial results significantly, with Mr Al Sadr’s bloc holding its 54 seats.
A group of Iran-backed Shiite militia leaders remained second but gained a seat that pushed them to 48, with incumbent Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi’s bloc in third place with 42 seats.
The results can still be contested by parties and have to be ratified by Iraq’s Supreme Federal Court.
Once ratified, a 90-day period for the formation of a government begins. Legislators must elect a speaker, then the president, and finally the prime minister and cabinet.
Mr Al Abadi, who is seeking a second term in office, is leading a caretaker government.
Iraq began the manual recount of votes on July 3 to try to end the country’s political stalemate from inconclusive elections in May. The process ended on August 6.
On May 12, in a largely peaceful process, Iraq voted in the first parliamentary elections since the ISIS extremist group was the toppled.
Even on the day of the poll, Kirkuk’s minority groups claimed there were voting breaches, including glitches in the electronic voting machines which had been used for the first time with the objective of reducing fraud.
As the results of the elections were announced, it became clear Mr Al Sadr’s party Sairoon, a bloc primarily consisting of the Sadrist Movement, would be the largest parliamentary party although they would not have a majority of seats.
The next step for him was to form a parliamentary party and to pick a prime minister.
Mr Al Sadr was regarded as unfavourable to the US, because his militia fought a bloody insurgency against American troops after the 2003 US invasion.
But the cleric reinvented himself as a champion of the poor and linked up with secular parties to battle corruption. He opposes the presence of American troops and the heavy influence of Iran in the region.
Mr Al Sadr’s election success was met with congratulations by Mr Al Abadi as the prime minister conceded in what seemed like a successful transfer of power.
Sairoon won 54 of parliament’s 328 seats in the first vote count, while Hadi Al Ameri’s Fatah coalition – the next largest party – won 47 seats. Mr Al Abadi’s party won 42 seats.
It was then up to the political factions to forge a coalition with a majority of 165 seats needed to form the government.
Results of the election pushed out established political figures as Iraqis sought change.
In the days after the election, the US and Iran waded in to influence the formation of the government.
The elections were the fourth since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 and had the lowest turnout of 44 per cent, a reflection of public anger at the dysfunctional political system.
The results were disputed by Turkmen and Arab communities in Kirkuk, which also has a large Kurdish population. Allegations of ballot stuffing and disputes over the legitimacy of the election led to calls to rerun the vote.
The Iraqi Parliament voted for a manual recount of all votes from the election and the appointment of judges to the election commission to oversee the process, but the recount needed approval from the supreme court.
Calls to rerun the election were rejected by Mr Al Abadi, who formed a caretaker government after parliament failed to extend its term because of a lack of quorum in its final session.
He said a government investigation found serious allegations of fraud and imposed a travel ban on some election commissioners.
The supreme court ordered a recount of disputed votes in the parliamentary election on June 21, but ignored requests to annul votes cast by Iraqis overseas, in displacement camps and by members of Kurdish security forces, calling it unconstitutional.
The recount was monitored by UN representatives and international observers.
The judges on the electoral commission limited the recount to “areas where there were complaints of corruption and ballot stuffing”.
This included local electoral offices in seven provinces – Kirkuk, Sulaymaniyah, Erbil, Dohuk, Nineveh, Salahuddin and Anbar – and votes cast overseas in Iran, Turkey, Britain, Lebanon, Jordan, the US and Germany.
The recount was tarnished by a fire at a ballot storage site in Baghdad, the murder of an election worker and a car bomb attack near ballot sites in Kirkuk.
At the end of last month, it was announced that Iraq would put election officials on trial for fraud in the election.
Once the commission’s findings are ratified by the supreme court, the horse-trading for places in government begins