The Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) has cancelled the results of 1021 electoral stations in the provinces of Erbil, Anbar, Sulaimaniyah, Baghdad, Duhok, Diyala, Salahuddin, Nineveh and Kirkuk as well as a number of polling stations outside of Iraq including, Jordan, Germany, the United States, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Turkey. The IHEC committee checked approximately 2,000 polling stations, which were believed to have witnessed irregularities and cases of forgery. 954 of these polling stations were inside Iraq and 67 others were outside of the country. In Baghdad, only 23 polling stations were cancelled, but in the provinces of Salahuddin, Nineveh and Anbar, 343 polling stations had their results cancelled. This could significantly harm the electoral performance of all the Sunni-dominated parties as well as that of the Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s Nasr Coalition, which according to the results released, won a significant number of seats in these provinces.
Meanwhile, results from 400 polling stations were reportedly cancelled in the Kurdistan Region. 80 polling stations were cancelled in Erbil, 96 in Sulaimaniyah and 224 in Duhok. This large-scale cancellation of votes in the Kurdistan Region further raises suspicions of the conduct of the main Kurdish parties, which surprisingly won a vast majority of seats in the region. Kurdish opposition parties such as Gorran have, since the announcement of the preliminary results, accused the main parties, namely the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) of committing electoral fraud. This decision by the IHEC may confirm suspicions of foul play in the Kurdistan Region, and could have a significant impact on the final outcome of the elections for the PUK and the KDP.
This comes after parliament convened and called on IHEC to cancel a large section of the election results and conduct a manual recount of a 10% sample of the votes cast. Many Iraqi parties, especially in the Kurdistan region and the disputed areas including Kirkuk province, have complained about irregularities and forgery in the parliamentary election. This prompted the parliamentary vote that took place on Sunday, which put the electoral commission under more pressure to carry out a more comprehensive investigation into these allegations. The IHEC has likely ordered a cancellation of these polling stations in order to give the perception that it is taking decisive action to look into these allegations. It is also a sign that it is beginning to cave into pressure from the various political factions determined to force a recount. However, this move will not quell doubts that these elections were carried out fairly, but could add more doubt to the validity of the election results. This could escalate the crisis and delay the government formation process considerably, which in turn could have dire consequences for public services, the economy and other pressing issues facing the Iraqi state.
For more information, read our daily report:
https://www.integrityuk.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Daily-Report-30th-May-2018-Iraq.pdf