Baghdad: Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki`s
calls for a recount of votes from Iraq`s polls were on Sunday
rebuffed by its Election Commission, amid a tight race to form
the biggest bloc in Parliament.
Maliki`s about-face from previous remarks that
complaints over the March 7 election would not affect the
results was condemned by the Iraqiya bloc which is
neck-and-neck with his State of Law Alliance.
Results from the vote, the second since Saddam Hussein
was ousted in the US-led invasion of 2003, come less than six
months before the United States is due to withdraw all of its
combat troops from Iraq.
Latest figures from Iraq`s election commission based
on 95 percent of ballots cast showed State of Law trailing the
Iraqiya bloc of secular ex-premier Iyad Allawi by around
11,000 votes nationwide.
In a statement on Sunday, Maliki called on Iraq`s
election commission to "immediately answer the demands of
political parties to proceed with a manual recount" which he
said would "protect political stability ... and prevent a
return to violence."
The statement, which pointedly noted that Maliki
remained head of the country`s armed forces, did not specify
whether he wanted a nationwide recount, or only in particular
provinces.
It differs markedly from Maliki`s own comments just a
week ago, when he said election complaints "cannot affect the
results."
Hundreds of people demonstrated in support of Maliki
in the holy city of Najaf as 10 provincial governors, all
State of Law, issued a statement also calling for a recount.
In his own statement, President Jalal Talabani also
called for "a new manual recount" in some of the country`s
provinces, but did not say which ones.
Iraq`s Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC)
rejected the demands for a manual recount, however, saying it
would take "too long."
"We have provided all political entities with CDs with
the results of counting at the political centres, after
thorough checks on our part," commission chief Faraj
al-Haidari said to a news agency.
"If they have doubts and think that there are errors,
they can ask us to hold recounts at particular centres, but
not across all of Iraq," he added.
He later told a press conference at IHEC`s data entry
centre in Baghdad`s Green Zone: "Some people have demanded a
new count for an entire city or across the country -- this is
like saying we need a whole new election."
"If you do not believe in modern technology, how would
you have confidence in the pen of a public worker?"
Senior Iraqiya candidate Intisar Allawi, a relative of
the bloc`s leader, denounced Maliki`s remarks as a "clear
threat against the commission", adding that a manual recount
was a "contradiction" fuelled by news that Iraqiya had
taken the lead in the nationwide vote tally.
Final results from the election are due to be
published on March 26.
Figures released yesterday showed Iraqiya garnered
2,631,388 votes compared with State of Law`s 2,620,042, a
difference of 11,346.
PTI
