Dr. Dhafer al-Ani said that his bloc calls on Iraqi people to participate in the upcoming election in no way means that the elections would be fare and square, rather, it is to minimize the damages inflicted on the Iraqi people. Dhafer al-Ani strongly warned against vote rigging by the ruling party.
"Those who have robbed the people and shed their blood could as well steal their votes. We candidates who have been barred from participating in the elections will follow the case with Iraq's judiciary and the decisions made by the Accountability and Justice Committee as well as the appeals commission. We will reveal the motivations behind barring the candidates. The international community should be alarmed of parties and individuals trying to copy [the Iranian regime's] velayat-e fagih's experience in Iraq," he said.
Dr. Dhafer al-Ani added: Those who do not hesitate to hand out thousands of pistols as gifts from the pockets of taxpayers for their own election purposes cannot have genuine democratic and peaceful purposes.
A senior Iraqi National Intelligence Service official has accused the prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, of handing out thousands of guns to tribal leaders in a bid to win votes.