Iraq: Manual recount of votes to begin next week

A manual recount of votes in Iraq’s May national election will begin next week, parliament speaker Salim Al-Jabouri said today.

The outgoing parliament this month passed a law mandating a nationwide manual recount of votes, but the panel of judges now in charge of the recount said it would only be conducted for problematic ballots.

Al-Jabouri warned that parliament’s term will end on Saturday unless lawmakers vote to extend it until after the recount is complete.

Iraq’s parliamentary election on 12 May was marred by low turnout and allegations of fraud.

Read: PM Abadi says opposed to repeat of Iraq election

A manual recount of some votes is to take place after allegations that electronic vote-counting equipment was misused. As a result of the allegations of fraud, parliament replaced the leaders of the election commission with judges.

In a news conference on Thursday Jabouri said that the manual recount would begin next week.