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Middle East
Iraq vote recount reveals no fraud
Poll body says no violations detected after Baghdad recount of March 7 votes.
Last Modified: 14 May 2010 16:19 GMT
Allawi's two seat lead after provisional results spurred al-Maliki to demand a recount [Reuters]

No instances of fraud have been found in Iraq's March 7 election after the electoral commission completed a manual recount of votes in Baghdad.

"We finished the recount of 11,298 ballot boxes and no violations or fraud have been found," Qassim al-Abboudi, an electoral commission spokesman, said on Friday. 

He said that the Independent High Electoral Commission would release the full results of the recount on Monday.

The recount of 2.5 million votes cast in Baghdad in Iraq's parliamentary elections beganearlier this month.

PM's allegation

Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq's incumbent prime minister, demanded the recount and alleged fraud had occurred after provisional results handed a two-seat lead to the political bloc led by his rival, Iyad Allawi.

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Baghdad province accounts for about a fifth of parliament's 325 seats. Al-Maliki had challenged results in four other provinces as well, but those requests were denied.

The recount was carried out inside the green zone under the supervision of observers from the UN and the European Union.

Iraq's parliamentary polls produced no clear winner, with Allawi's Iraqiya coalition winning 91 seats, and al-Maliki's State of Law bloc coming a close second, with 89 seats.

A political bloc needs 163 seats in parliament in order to form a government.

The Iraqi National Alliance (INA), a coalition led by Shia religious groups, had finished third with 70 seats.

Source:
Al Jazeera and agencies
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