Manual vote count has not changed Iraqi election results, says official
Iraq’s top electoral official says a manual count of a sample of polling boxes matches the initial results released on Monday.
The Independent High Electoral Commission chief sought to reassure those sceptical of the results of Sunday’s national election, which were counted electronically.
The election was the fifth since the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein’s regime.
The turnout, 41 per cent, was the lowest since 2005 as Iraqis tire of what is widely regarded as a broken political system. In 2018, it was 44.5 per cent. Judge Jalil Khalaf, chairman of the board of electoral commissioners, said one box was picked up randomly from each polling centre in the country, providing 8,547 boxes to be counted manually.
“It was a 100 per cent match,” he said.
Mr Khalaf said results from 3,681 polling boxes had been sent to the commission’s headquarters in Baghdad, following a failure in the transmission process or a delay in sending memory sticks.
Tallying of the ballots was completed yesterday afternoon, leading to a small change in seat numbers for the competing parties.
But, as expected, the change did not overturn the Sadrist dominance of the results, or the poor performance of the Iran-linked Fatah Alliance.
The Sadrist bloc of followers of Shiite populist Moqtada Al Sadr was the big winner with more than 72 seats.
Sunni Parliament Speaker Mohammed Al Halbousi’s Taqadum party came second, with 37 seats. Former prime minister Nouri Al Maliki’s State of Law bloc was third, with about 35 seats.
Independent candidates, mainly those linked to the protest movement of recent years, are expected to gain at least 30 seats.
The Iran-backed Fatah bloc led by paramilitary chief Hadi Al Amiri and made up of politicians and militia commanders linked to Tehran looked likely to suffer significant losses, securing only 17 seats.
Fatah is expected to gain at least four more seats as government formation talks continue and smaller parties join their alliance.
The creation of a larger bloc by a coalition could challenge the Sadrists, but opposing groups would have to strive hard for compromise.
Mr Al Sadr said a day earlier that a delay in announcing the final results and disagreements over ballot boxes would harm the Iraqi public.
“We call on everyone to exercise restraint and to show a patriotic spirit for the sake of the country and to abide by the legal methods regarding electoral objections,” he said.
Fatah and several other Shiite political parties, as well as some independent candidates, contested the initial results, saying paper ballots did not match the electronic results received earlier.
Mr Khalaf said that was because early results covered only 94 per cent of the votes.
“The procedures adopted by the commission are accurate and watched closely,” he said.
Monitors said they had not registered any serious breaches during the election process that could call into question the accuracy of the results.
On Tuesday, EU observers said the election had been “peaceful, calm and orderly”.
Chief EU observer Viola von Cramon commended Iraq and its people for the conduct of the election, with 95 per cent of polling stations visited by EU observers rated positively.
The US said it hoped the next government would reflect “the will of the Iraqi people” and work to address the country’s “governance, security and economic challenges”.
“These elections included hundreds of international monitors and observers from the UN and EU, in addition to thousands of domestic observers. We look forward to reviewing their reports,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.
She congratulated Iraq on fulfilling its promise to hold early elections in response to the demands of protesters in 2019.
A box of ballot papers was taken randomly from each polling centre, providing 8,547 boxes to be counted manually