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Maliki’s bloc slams fraud, not rivals

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s coalition says it will accept the results of the manual vote recount in Baghdad, regardless of what they might be.

The complaint filed by the State of Law alliance was not aimed at former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi’s al-Iraqiya coalition, the Iraqi National Alliance, Kurdistan Alliance or any other slates, Hassan al-Sanid from the State of Law bloc said on Sunday.

“Our complaint came after the electoral commission presented evidence which indicated fake signatures, unsealed ballot boxes and rewritten tokens, as well as testimony from a score of observers from the election commission who confirmed violations in the electoral process,” he told reporters.

The electoral committee started recounting some 2.5 million votes cast at 11,000 polling stations across Baghdad during the March 7 parliamentary election.

Results from the elections showed Allawi’s Iraqiya winning 91 seats, with Maliki’s coalition on its heels with 89 seats. The National Iraqi Alliance followed with 70 seats.

Baghdad was by far the biggest prize in last month’s vote with 70 seats up for grabs in the new 325-seat parliament and new vote tallies could easily strip al-Iraqiya of its narrow win.

The manual recount started on Monday.

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