Iraq’s Sadr condemns pressure on election commission to change results

The leader of Iraq’s Sadrist movement, Shia cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr, yesterday condemned “political and security pressure” exerted on the country’s Independent High Electoral Commission in order to change the results of the parliamentary elections that took place last month.

“We condemn and denounce all the political and security pressures the commission has been subjected to from the first day of its work until now,” Al- Sadr wrote on Twitter, warning that “there must be no interference in the work of the judiciary and the Federal Court, which is supposed to ratify the elections result that some parties are battling to change.”

Al-Sadr praised the “integrity and accuracy” of the commission.

Pro-Iran Shia parties including the Fateh Alliance, the main Shia coalition in Iraq, have rejected the election results and demanded a manual recount of the votes.

According to the preliminary results of the parliamentary elections last month, the Sadrist bloc won 73 seats out of 329.

READ: Iraq’s main Shia alliance files lawsuit to annul election results