BAGHDAD (Dispatches) – Thousands of Iraqis have rallied nationwide to denounce the electoral commission results of last week’s legislative poll.
On Sunday, people marched along the streets in the eastern suburb of Hussainiyah in the capital Baghdad and condemned the results of the parliamentary election as “fraudulent.” Security forces were later deployed to the area to disperse the crowd, who burned tires.
The Sairoon Alliance, led by influential Shia Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, has made remarkable progress and is staking its claim as the largest bloc in the house.
A protest was also held in Aden Square in the center of Baghdad. Major roads and public transport routes were shut in other parts of the capital, with police deployed to protect key buildings and stop protests from spreading.
Elsewhere in the southeastern city of Basra, protesters burned tires to block key roads.
People also rallied in different parts of the southern province of Dhi Qar and in the northern city of Mosul against the results of the parliamentary election.
Separately, the Iraqi Resistance Coordination Committee called for peaceful demonstrations in protest at the results. The committee said in a statement that “outsiders blatantly manipulated poll results, and the government’s inaction in this regard prompted the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) not to undertake its mission and to give in to foreign pressure.”
“We expected the IHEC to rectify this misguided path to prevent a crisis. However, it adamantly insisted to move in the wrong direction and exacerbate the situation,” the Iraqi Resistance Coordination Committee stated.
“Iraqi resistance groups, as always, will stand against all conspiracies that target the nation,” the statement said, stressing that Iraqis reserve the right to stage protests against all those who have trampled on their rights.
Moreover, Mohammed al-Baldawi, a member of the Fatah (Conquest) Alliance, said on Sunday that foreign parties had spoiled the parliamentary election.
“Figures affiliated to the United States, Britain, France and the United Arab Emirates played a role in electoral fraud. Among violations on election day were huge sums of money spent to influence votes, and misappropriation of government resources and positions,” he said.
“Election results stunned us. We, therefore, are calling on the IHEC to recount the votes manually to ensure that all the ballots cast are counted accurately. The Independent High Electoral Commission could have checked ballot boxes that we were suspicious about in order to show the credibility of its work. It, however, turned down our appeals regarding inquiry into flagrant violations at polling stations in Kurdistan region,” Baldawi said.
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.