A JUDICIAL panel reviewing the conduct of Iraq’s March 7th parliamentary election yesterday ruled that 2.5 million ballots cast in Baghdad should be manually recounted.
The panel acted on an appeal by incumbent prime minister Nuri al-Maliki, whose State of Law bloc, with 89 seats in the 325 member assembly, was edged out of the lead by Iyad Allawi’s Iraqiya bloc, which won 91. Under the constitution, Mr Allawi should be first to form a coalition, but Mr Maliki has adopted a collection of measures to deny his rival the opportunity.
The recount is intended to alter the outcome of an election deemed credible by the UN, US, and foreign monitors. Mr Maliki, whose bloc won 26 out of 70 seats in the capital, seeks to reduce the 24 seats taken by Iraqiya. But many Iraqis are likely to dismiss the recount due to the likelihood that it may be manipulated. Since the election commission was appointed and the apparatus for carrying out the poll was installed during Mr Maliki’s tenure, it is highly unlikely that the count would be falsified to favour his main rival. Quite the opposite could be expected.
Nevertheless, a member of Mr Maliki’s parliamentary bloc, Hassen al-Senaed, said it would secure more seats. “The com- mittee discussed all the documents and evidence that prove that there was some manipulation in voting stations.” Mr Maliki had originally requested a recount of 750,000 votes in five provinces, including Baghdad, but the panel decided to focus on the capital, the most high-profile contest.
The recount order came as Mr Maliki’s fitness for the pre- miership was doubly challenged. First, Ammar al-Hakim, head of the Shia Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council, said he did not believe Mr Maliki or Mr Allawi enjoyed enough Iraqi or international acceptance to serve as prime minister. While Mr Hakim, whose bloc came fourth in the poll, said he would not reject either candi- date, his partner, radical Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, has ruled out Mr Maliki.
The second challenge came from a leak of an internal US embassy report that revealed 431 Sunni men had been imprisoned in harsh conditions and 100 tortured in a secret facility in Baghdad operated by Mr Maliki’s military office and an elite force under his command.
The men were arrested last October in the restive north by the Iraqi army and transferred to the clandestine prison after the provincial governor complained that warrants had not been produced and innocent citizens had been among those detained.
Iraq’s human rights minister Wijdan Salim only learned of the secret prison in March when family members asked about missing relatives. Mr Maliki defended the prison, interrogators and private militia, and accused his enemies of being responsible for the torture.
The US embassy document cautioned that revelations about the imprisonment and mistreatment of Sunnis could “compromise the prime minister’s ability to put together a viable government”.
Meanwhile, Mr Maliki announced that top al-Qaeda com- manders Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayyub al-Masri had been killed in a joint operation by US and Iraqi forces.
His claim was backed up by US commander Gen Raymond Odierno, but was denied by al-Qaeda elements in Iraq.
