Iraqi lawmakers will not support parliament term extension beyond Saturday: Lawmaker

A senior member of the Iraqi parliament says lawmakers will not support an extension of the term of the legislature until after a recount of votes from a recent parliamentary election is complete.

Sunni lawmaker Faris al-Faris said Thursday that senior members of the Iraqi parliament had opposed extending the parliament’s term beyond Saturday in a session earlier in the day.

“The leaders of most of the political blocs in Parliament made it clear today that they will not support a bill extending parliament’s term…,” said Faris, without elaborating on how the chamber would function after Saturday, when the current term of the legislature expires.

In a law passed earlier this month, the Iraqi parliament mandated a nationwide manual recount of votes from the May general elections, in which a number of political parties alleged fraud.

The announcement came a few days after Iraq’s prime minister ordered the creation of a high-powered commission to look into alleged irregularities in the parliamentary elections.

Blocs led by Iraq’s Shia politicians won the election.

A panel of judges tasked with conducting the recount has said that a full manual recount would not be necessary and only problematic ballots flagged in official reports or in formal complaints would be affected by the process. The panel has yet to comment on the timing of the recount.

Outgoing parliament speaker Salim al-Jabouri said Thursday that a manual recount would begin next week. Jabouri, who failed to retain his seat in the May vote, said in a news conference that the parliament’s term would end on Saturday unless lawmakers vote to extend it.

The parliament’s law mandating a full recount of votes came after a storage site housing ballot boxes from Iraq’s parliamentary elections in Baghdad caught fire ahead of the recount. The fire broke out in a warehouse located in Rusafah, one of the largest voting districts in eastern Baghdad.