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These charges are true and are widely
reported on Iraqi blogs. The fraud by the Shia list (UIA) also obliterated
the seats that the smaller parties would have won in a fair count. One
knowledgeable individual even suggested to "Iraq News" that Iranian
intelligence was almost certainly behind this.
Sunni and secular parties seek Iraq election rerun · Ruling party accused of blatant fraud
in polls Thursday December 22, 2005 Guardian A broad-based group of Sunni and secular parties called yesterday for a rerun of last week's Iraqi elections, claiming the ruling party in the country had engaged in blatant fraud. "We want a new election commission and we're going to ask the United Nations to help organise it," Thair al-Naqeeb, the spokesman for Ayad Allawi, the head of the Iraqi National List, told the Guardian last night."We're going to ask for a new government to rule while the election is prepared. If our demands are not met, we will take further steps and create a lot of protest," he added. Mr Allawi was Washington's favourite to become prime minister in the new four-year parliament. His list includes liberals, communists, and representatives of several ethnic minorities, as well as secular Sunnis and Shias. It is considered to be the most balanced of any group in last week's poll and is firmly opposed to religion interfering in politics. But preliminary results announced this week gave it a worse score than it expected, and it will probably end up with barely half the 40 seats it has in the current parliament. Leaders of two Sunni blocks met Mr Allawi's allies at his headquarters yesterday to work out their strategy. They included the Islamist-led Consensus Front and a secular list run by a Sunni nationalists and former Ba'athist, Saleh al Mutlak. Although they did well in Iraq's western provinces, the Sunnis were disappointed not to have done better in the capital. They plan to meet again today with a larger group of parties. "We expect to sign a joint statement outlining our demands," Mr Naqeeb said. "I know it's not easy to rerun an election. But if they refuse, we will boycott the new parliament". Mr Allawi, who served for nine months as prime minister until April, is out of Iraq, but Mr Naqeeb said he was in constant touch with him and Mr Allawi approved fully of their actions. Allegations of fraud were already being made before results were announced. By Sunday, more than 1,000 witness statements of violations had been sent to the election commission. They ranged from claims of ballot-stuffing to the involvement of police and others security officials in partisan campaigning. Hamid Mousa, leader of the communist party and a top candidate on Mr Allawi's list, said on Sunday that the election commission was weak. "Some members are unwilling to issue judgments against major parties. Others are biased in favour of a particular party," he said. In Baghdad in particular, parties accused the police of supporting the main Shia list, the United Iraqi Alliance, the largest component in the present government. When preliminary results for Baghdad gave the Shia list - a coalition of several religious parties - 58% of the vote, the opposition claimed this proved their suspicions were justified. Nationally, the Shia list is likely to retain most of the 140 seats it has in the current parliament. Electoral commission officials have acknowledged that 20 complaints dealt with malpractice serious enough to swing a seat unfairly. But they rejected calls for a rerun of the vote. The row is embarrassing US officials. They were clearly disappointed at Mr Allawi's poor result. Now the bitterness over fraud allegations is poisoning the atmosphere for the "broad-based government of national unity" which Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador, said on Tuesday he hoped to see. But they do not want an election rerun since this would ruin the image of a clean new democracy in Iraq they have been anxious to cultivate. Hussein al-Hindawi, the electoral commission chief, said 10.9 million voters took part on Thursday, putting national turnout at 70%, higher than the 58% who participated in January when many Sunni Arabs minority stayed away. Turnout in Anbar province, where insurgents are strong in towns such as Ramadi, was 55%, compared with 2% in January. Reacting to the fraud charges and the calls for a rerun, Jawad al-Maliki, a senior member of the United Iraqi Alliance, retorted that the Sunni minority should accept the will of the majority of voters. "Democracy means accepting the opinion of the majority. They should accept the other and the outcome of the ballot boxes. The Sunnis need to take this into consideration," he said. |
