Maliki: Vote recount was to validate election credibility

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Friday said that the vote recount was only aimed at validating the results of the recent legislative elections and enhance voters’ trust, according to a release issued by his office. “Prime Minister Maliki received Arab League Assistant Secretary General Ambassador Mohammed al-Khemlishi, who is also the pan-Arab organization’s Iraq election monitoring team, and asserted to him that the Iraqis will overcome their differences and form a government soon,” read the release as received by IraqiNews.com news agency. Iraq’s appellate body had decided on April 19 to have a vote recount exclusively in Baghdad upon contests submitted by Maliki’s Dawlat al-Qanoon (State of Law) coalition. The release quoted Maliki as saying that Iraq “is occupying a distinguished place amongst Arab nations and can act as a bridge for good relations between Arab countries and other nations and ethnicities neighboring Iraq“. Former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi’s al-Iraqiya bloc won 91 seats, followed by Dawlat al-Qanoon with 98 seats, the Iraqi National Alliance (INA) with 70 seats and the Kurdistan Alliance (KA) with 43 seats as shown in the results of the country’s legislative elections held on March 7. AmR (S) 2