Adam Moro
18 July 2018•Update: 19 July 2018
BAGHDAD
Iraq has finished manually recounting May 12 parliamentary poll results at polling stations in the northern Nineveh province where “irregularities” were reported, the country’s official electoral commission announced Wednesday.
Commission officials have already conducted recounts in the provinces of Kirkuk, Sulaymaniyah, Erbil, Dohuk, Basra, Maysan, Wasit, Dhi Qar, Muthanna and Al-Qadisiyyah.
In a statement, commission spokesman Laith Jabr confirmed that “recount procedures at Nineveh polling stations where irregularities were reported have been finalized”.
The electoral commission’s board of governors, he added, had “directly overseen” the recounting process.
It remains unclear until now, however, how the recount will affect final poll results.
For the last two months, results of Iraq’s hard-fought May 12 election have remained the subject of bitter dispute amid widespread allegations of voter fraud.
Once the manual recount is completed and Iraq’s Federal Court approves the new results, incoming members of parliament will hold a first session to elect a new assembly speaker and two deputies.
Within 30 days of the first parliamentary session, the assembly will elect -- by a two-thirds majority -- the country’s next president.
The president will then task the largest bloc in parliament with drawing up a new government, which must be referred back to parliament for approval.
Earlier this month, the electoral commission began recounting the official poll results.
According to those results, Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Sairoon coalition won 54 parliamentary seats, followed by a Hashd al-Shaabi-led coalition (47 seats) and Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's Victory Bloc (42 seats).
