22 Oct 2021; MEMO: Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission yesterday announced its rejection of 174 appeals and acceptance to seven others submitted by candidates and political parties following the announcement of election results.
IHEC said in a statement that a total tof 181 appeals were presented to the Board of Commissioners, noting that after "completing the necessary investigative procedures in light of the evidence and the submitted recommendations, the council has dismissed 174 appeals and accepted seven others which were supported by evidence."
"In light of this, the contested stations will be opened under those appeals and in accordance with Article 38 of the Law," IHEC pointed out, adding that the results would be "sorted and counted manually in the presence of representatives of the competing candidates."
The statement went on explaining that the "dates, procedures, and mechanisms" would be "determined later."
A group of political coalitions recently objected to the election results, describing it as a "fraud." Other armed factions have threatened to "take escalatory steps unless the election results are manually counted."
In response, Iraqi Prime Minister, Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, called on the parties "to adhere to legal procedures and the peaceful path."
"Security forces' main duty is to secure the freedom of expression for citizens, provided that there was no violation of the law," he said.
According to the preliminary results, the Sadr bloc affiliated with Shia leader Muqtada Al-Sadr received the highest number of seats with 73 out of a possible 329. A coalition will not need to be formed to secure the 165 seats required to form a government.
