BAGHDAD (Dispatches) –
Hundreds of protesters clashed with security forces in Iraq’s capital on Friday, expressing their fury over last month’s election result, AFP journalists and a security source said.
The demonstrators reportedly blocked access to the Green Zone” on three sides, before they were pushed back by police who fired in the air, a security source said, requesting anonymity.
The Green Zone is a high security area housing the U.S. embassy and Iraq’s election commission.
The protesters demand that the Independent High Electoral Commission conduct a recount of the votes.
The protesters said they had no confidence in the election commission, accusing it of vote-rigging and manipulating the election.
The Fatah (Conquest) Alliance and Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq political parties have criticized as surprising the latest UN Security Council statement, which commended the success of Iraq’s parliamentary elections before legal appeals were processed.
The Fatah Alliance stated that the commendation showed the Security Council’s bias and raised questions regarding its role in what took place, especially since local and international monitors, namely those with the European Union, had recorded many violations on election day and in the announcement of the results.
It reiterated that the Iraqi political coalition would insist on its call for a vote recount and rejected any foreign interference in election results.
The Alliance had earlier rebuked “the ominous triad of the United States, Britain and Israel,” which, it said, “worked through Emirati funds and groups to remove the forces that rejected Western hegemony and stood as an impenetrable fortress in the face of normalization deal, occupation and disintegration.”
A total of 329 seats were up for grabs in the election. More than 3,240 candidates were running, including 950 women.
According to the preliminary results, the Fatah Alliance won 14 seats in the October 10 elections after taking 48 seats in the 2018 vote.
A count based on initial results from several provinces plus Baghdad, verified by local government officials, suggested that Sadr’s Sairoon coalition had won more than 70 seats, which, if confirmed, could give him considerable influence in forming a government.
Kurdish parties won 61 seats, the results showed, including 32 for the Kurdistan Democratic Party, which dominates the government of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of Iraq, and 15 for its rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party.
Sunni Parliament Speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi’s Taqaddum coalition won 38 seats, Iraq’s state news agency reported, making it the second largest in parliament.
The State of Law Alliance, headed by former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who led Iraq from 2006 to 2014, came third overall with 37.