BAGHDAD (AFP) – A case filed by the popular resistance Hashd al-Sha’abi alliance contesting Iraq’s October 10 parliamentary election results opened in a federal court on Monday.
Judge Jassem Mohamed Aboud, whose court must rule on the complaint before final results are ratified and a new parliament is inaugurated, adjourned the case until December 22 after a procedural hearing.
Shia Muslim cleric Moqtada Sadr was declared on November 30 the biggest winner of the election.
Sadr’s movement won nearly a fifth of the seats -- 73 out of the assembly’s total 329, ahead of the Fatah (Conquest) Alliance, the political arm of Hashd al-Sha’abi.
Hashd leaders have rejected the result -- sharply down from their 48 seats in the outgoing assembly -- as a “fraud”.
Mohamed Majid al-Saadi, lawyer for the plaintiffs, told AFP at the court that the aim of the Hashd’s appeal was “to have the results annulled” because of “serious violations”.
According to the Fatah Alliance, the electronic voting system had failed to recognize the finger print identification of many voters.
It has also protested at alleged failings of a new electronic machine used for the election and organized demonstrations.