Urgent: United Nations monitors fraud and armed intimidation in the Iraqi elections

Urgent: United Nations monitors fraud and armed intimidation in the Iraqi elections



Twilight News

41 minutes ago

The UN special representative for Iraq, Jan Kubic, said on Thursday that there were fraud and intimidation of armed groups in Iraq's legislative elections held on May 12.

The Electoral Commission on Wednesday announced the abolition of the results of the vote in 1021 polling stations inside and outside Iraq in the general parliamentary elections, at a time of increasing demands to cancel the elections or a manual recount of the results.

"Iraq's legislative elections were held on May 12. Iraqis were able to vote and their representatives were chosen freely and safely; liberated areas saw a free vote for the first time after the victory of Iraqi forces and a crushing defeat," Kubic said in his briefing to the Security Council on Iraq and its successor, Shafak News.

"The elections were characterized by low voter turnout, and the decision by more than half of the population voting not to exercise their democratic right sends a strong signal to their representatives to live up to the expectations of the people," he said.

"After the elections and the announcement of the preliminary results, many political leaders have publicly supported the electoral process, including the prime minister and his republican president, but in other areas, particularly Kirkuk, there have been complaints demanding manual counting of the results, especially by Arabs and Turkmen."

"We urge the Electoral Commission to resolve all appeals in an appropriate and timely manner. The post-election period represents a crucial time for the new government to work on the path of much-needed political, economic and social reforms.

He added that "the continuation of the military presence in the camps, in addition to sexual harassment of women and girls, in addition to some electoral fraud and intimidation by armed groups."

The country is witnessing a state of political boiling on the back of doubts about tampering with the results of the parliamentary elections, where the Iraqi parliament called for the Electoral Commission to conduct a counting and hand counting by 10% of the results of elections across the country and the cancellation of the results of the vote of the outside and displaced, while other political forces are demanding the cancellation of the election results in general.

http://www.shafaaq.com/ar/Ar_NewsReader/7b56924b-20ed-402b-b813-b98575aaac47