Iraqi premier won't recognize election results without a recount

Mar 23, 2010, 10:54 GMT

Baghdad - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's coalition has said it will not recognize election results without a recount and warned of unrest, the independent daily al-Mashreq reported on Tuesday.

State of Law coalition member Ali al-Adib said, 'We will not recognize the final results which the election commission will announce if it does not respond to requests for a manual recount of the votes.'

Al-Maliki called for a recount of votes in the March 7 parliamentary election for the second time on Sunday, after partial results indicated that his main rival, former prime minister Ayad Allawi of the Iraqiya List, had pulled ahead.

So far the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) has refused the requests for a national recount. The commission is scheduled to announce final results of the elections on Friday.

Al-Adib echoed al-Maliki's allegations of fraud. 'We have strong, clear evidence of incidents of fraud by some commission officials while entering data into the machines.'

'The Iraqiya Lists' advance is surprising because it does not have a strong representation in parliament and because its leader, Ayad Allawi, has not been present in Iraq for the entire past period,' he said.

He also reiterated al-Maliki's warnings of 'a return to violence' if elections are seen as illegitimate. 'The Iraqi nation is angry and anxious about the refusal of the recount requests,' al-Adib said.

Talk of an alliance between the State of Law coalition and the rival Shiite group, the Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq (SICI), is gathering momentum.

SICI, headed by Ammar al-Hakim, is the party with the largest number of seats in the outgoing parliament, and is a key component in the Iraqi National Alliance, which early results show running in third-place in the race.

Ali Baban, minister of planning and member of the State of Law coalition said that the two entities were 'brothers' and that their supporters 'would not allow them any option other than unification,' independent daily al-Bayina al-Jadida reported.

The two parties met earlier this week to discuss the need for a vote recount.

Baban added that once the two parties unified, they could form a government 'within a limited number of days.'