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Iraqi electoral commission says no cause for recount

Arab World Materials 21 March 2010 14:57 (UTC +04:00)
The head of Iraq's electoral commission said on Sunday that there are no grounds for a recount of the March 7 election votes, dpa reported.
Iraqi electoral commission says no cause for recount

The head of Iraq's electoral commission said on Sunday that there are no grounds for a recount of the March 7 election votes, dpa reported.

His statement came after calls by both the prime minister and the president of Iraq calling on the country's electoral commission to agree to requests for a recount.

Recount requests come after former prime minister Ayad Allawi's Iraqi List eked out a narrow lead over current Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's State of Law coalition in early election results announced Saturday.

Faraj al-Haidari, head of the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), said in a statement to Iraqi TV "The commission has handed over copies of the results from the polling stations to all political entities."

"They should review these results and compare them to those announced by the commission before asking for a recount," he said

He added that the commission is prepared for "a recount in any station with results that are different from those handed over to the political groups."

Qassem Aboudi, spokesperson for the IHEC, said the commission has canceled the results of five stations in Baghdad, Mosul and Anbar after confirming that their votes were rigged. He said the commission is still investigating 1,979s complaints, including 319 so-called "red-category" complaints.

 The commission had rejected the State of Law coalition's request for a recount last week, which had been made amidst allegations of fraud.

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