Mounting Accusations of Voter Fraud in Iraq's Elections

Iraq's election commission is fighting back against claims that it failed to take account of grave violations in tightly contested provincial polls.

Last week it released final results from the January 31 election, confirming Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's allies came top in ten of 14 provinces where polls were held.

It also released details of electoral violations, confirming that none of the 20 cases of serious fraud it had investigated were severe enough to affect the overall outcome.

Undeterred and angry, some of Maliki's rivals have accused the commission of bias and are threatening to challenge its conclusions in court.

The Independent High Electoral Commission, IHEC, has said it does not tolerate any political influence or interference.

January's vote was the first in Iraq since 2005. It was also the first of several critical tests the election commission faces this year.

A vote on the withdrawal of U.S. troops is due in June, while district and national parliamentary elections are scheduled for July and December respectively.

Over the last few weeks, IWPR-trained journalists have gathered several reports of alleged violations, ranging from ballot boxes going temporarily missing to family members voting for absent relatives.

The strongest allegations of fraud so far have come from the Iraqiya list of former prime minister Ayad Allawi.

"The majority of violations occurred in Baghdad, Salahaddin and Anbar," said Ali Nesaif, a member of parliament with Allawi's list. "Some boxes were stolen from polling centers in Salahaddin as well as Diyala."

Iraqiya polled a very close second to a Sunni Islamist party in Salahaddin province.

"We are not satisfied with the final results -- particularly in Baghdad and Basra," Kadhim Turki, an Allawi ally, told IWPR.

The Iraqiya list came fourth in Baghdad, close behind a list loyal to anti-American Shia cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr. In Basra, Iraqiya polled fifth, again falling behind the Sadrists.

Jamal Betekh, a spokesman for Iraqiya, earlier this month accused "powerful parties" of rigging the votes. He told the Aswat al-Iraq news agency that IHEC was "anything but independent because it takes its orders from the state".

The Sadrist bloc has also voiced anger at the election commission's findings.

"We have been mistreated in this election. IHEC was not fair -- it was biased in favor of other lists," Amir Tahar al-Kinani, the leader of a list backing Sadr told IWPR.

He pointed out that initial results showed the party was in second place in Maysan province, followed by the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, SIIC.

"In the final results, we dropped to third position, while SIIC took second place. How can that happen?" asked Kinani.

"Our bloc and SIIC won an approximately equal number of votes in Maysan -- yet we only got seven seats, while they got eight."

Kinani said his bloc had noted a suspicious drop in its share of votes in Baghdad after the final results were announced. He also accused IHEC of making late changes to the law that effectively raised the threshold for severe violations.

Kinani said the Sadrists had filed a judicial challenge to the election commission's findings.

A parliamentarian from Ayad Allawi's Iraqiya list, Khairullah al-Basri, also told IWPR it would appeal the poll results in court.

A number of other alliances have also reportedly complained of electoral fraud, though it is unclear if they too will now pursue a formal inquiry into the election commission's results.

Speaking before the final results were released, an election commission source told IWPR that parties had appealed initial results in several close races countrywide.

According to the source, who requested anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media, initial results were contested by Maliki's alliance in Babil and Karbala.