NCRI – Ibrahim al-Janabi, a representative for former Prime Minister Allawi, delivered a statement today describing the December 15 elections in all of Iraq’s 18 provinces as “fraudulent.” during a press conference by dozens of Sunni Arab and secular Shiite groups in Baghdad. The groups threatened to boycott Iraq’s new legislature if complaints about tainted voting are not reviewed by an international body. A joint statement issued by 35 political groups that competed in last week’s elections said the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, which oversaw the ballot, should be disbanded.
Political and patriotic Iraqi parties are continuing their protests and complaints against election fraud during the Thursday elections in favor of the Iranian preferred Shiite list.
Ayad Jamaleddin, a well-known Iraqi cleric and member of Ayad Allawi’s coalition said in an interview with Al-Arabiya television that if the electoral commission did not revise the preliminary results, they would take the issue to the UN Security Council.
Dr. Ayad Sameraii from the Iraqi National Dialogue Front told Al Arabia television that some of the vote tampering was in favor of the Iranian-backed Shiite alliance. He said: “Voters in Sadr City were allowed to vote ten times, that’s why the result in Baghdad has been seriously manipulated.” He added that more than a hundred thousand of his slate’s supporters were denied admission to polling stations to cast their ballots. In Ghazaliya, the National Guards continuously fired shots into the air to disperse voters before they had a chance to vote.
Saleh al-Mutlak, a prominent candidate heading his own party and slate, insisted that international groups take the lead on investigating the election. He said at a news conference, "We will not remain silent about what has happened, so we call on the international community to intervene. We call on the president of the United States not to add another mistake to the mistakes already made in Iraq."
The Iraqi Consensus Front, a Sunni-led coalition, rejected the results announced for the Iraqi election, warning of “grave repercussions on security and political stability”. Adnan al-Dulaimi, the front’s leader, said if measures were not taken to correct the results, “we will demand that the elections be held again in Baghdad… If this demand is not met, we will resort to other measures.”
The Iraqi National List of former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has filed its own list of complaints, including allegations that supporters of the United Iraqi Alliance stormed polling stations to cast multiple ballots. Mr. Allawi’s allies have criticized the electoral commission’s decision to announce results so early, and have questioned whether the commission has the independence to stand up to powerful political parties.
White House national security adviser Stephen Hadley, speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said: "Everybody understands the Sunnis need to be part of this process going forward in Iraq and need to be part of this government. How that will sort out and get down is obviously for the Iraqis to decide." Hadley also accused Iran of being the world’s greatest exporter of terrorism.
"We have a lot of issues with Iran, not least of it is evidence that equipment of Iranian origin is finding its way into the hands of groups in Iraq that have attacked Iraqis and in some cases attacked" forces of the U.S.-led international military force in Iraq, Hadley asserted.
He said, "Iran is a big supporter of terror. It’s probably the number one supporter of terror in the world today."
Sunni Arabs and a key secular party charged that parliamentary elections were tainted by fraud, and demanded an inquiry into preliminary results showing the governing Shiite religious bloc with a larger than expected lead.
Adnan al-Dulaimi, head of the Sunni Arab alliance the Iraqi Accordance Front, listed several complaints, including voting centers failing to open, shortages in election materials and reports of multiple voting.
U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said "final results will not be announced until those red complaints have been looked at."
The accusations of fraud in the elections came as the U.S. ambassador warned that sectarianism only increases the risk of violence and said Iraq needs a governing coalition which bridges the divide.
"It looks as if people have preferred to vote for their ethnic or sectarian identities," Khalilzad said. "But for Iraq to succeed there has to be cross-ethnic and cross-sectarian cooperation. Sectarianism undercuts prospects for success and increases the risk for conflict among sects."
