Iraqi parliament says there is strong evidence of vote-rigging in legislative elections

Baghdad (Iraqinews.com) – A parliamentary fact-finding committee in Iraq stressed that it has clear evidence of vote-rigging in the May 12 parliamentary elections, the first in the country since the defeat of Islamic State last year.

“The parliament’s fact-finding committee received strong evidence that there were manipulation and fraud in the recent parliamentary polls,” the committee’s head Adel Nuri told Iraqi website Alghad Press, vowing to take legal action against perpetrators of rigging the vote.

Nuri described the Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission as a “non-independent body” after it dealt with Iraq’s political blocs in a non-neutral way.

He explained that the commission, in accordance with Article 62 of the Iraqi constitution, is affiliated to the parliament, adding that the commission’s refusal to follow parliamentary directives is seen as ‘revolt’.

Last week, the Iraqi cabinet said it formed a panel to investigate alleged forgery in the elections that were held on 12th of this month. Last Monday, the parliament urged bodies concerned to take necessary measures to address the violations, including recount and cancellation of results if required.

The cabinet’s decision came after the Iraqi parliament decided to cancel the results of expat votes in the parliamentary polls and ordered a recount of around 10 percent of the votes after dropping the results from the internal refugee camps in regions like Anbar, Saladin and Diyala.