国际英语资讯:Iraq announces final results of parliamentary elections after manual recount

BAGHDAD, Aug. 9 -- The Iraqi electoral commission announced on Thursday the final results of May 12 parliamentary elections with only a few changes to the results announced earlier.

A statement issued by the panel of nine judges, who replaced the nine members of the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) to supervise the recount process, announced the final results of the elections after the manual recount for votes of hundreds of suspected ballot boxes after allegations of irregularities and fraud.

The results showed no change in 13 of Iraq's 18 provinces, and changes in four provinces involving five seat-winners within their own coalitions.

The only effective change in different coalitions occurred in Baghdad Province, where the Fatah Coalition, led by Hadi Al-Amiri, won a further seat to make its total to 48, while the seats of Baghdad Coalition reduced to three from four.

On May 12, millions of Iraqis went to 8,959 polling centers across the country to vote for their parliamentary representatives who will form the government for the next four years.

A week later, the former electoral commission announced the results of Iraq's parliamentary election, which showed that the political coalition Al-Sa'iroon won the election with 54 seats in the Iraqi 329-seat Council of Representatives (parliament).

The results also showed Fatah Coalition in the second place with 47 seats, while the al-Nasr Coalition, led by current Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, came in third with 42 seats, and the State of Law Coalition headed by Vice President and former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki garnered 25 seats.

The two major Kurdish parties, Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), headed by Masoud Barzani, and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), took the lead in the Kurdish region and in the ethnically-mixed province of Kirkuk, with 25 seats for the KDP and 18 for the PUK, according to IHEC figures.

However, Iraq witnessed serious setbacks in its political process following the elections as many Iraqi parties, especially in the Kurdish region and the disputed areas, including Kirkuk Province, have complained about alleged irregularities and forgery in the parliamentary elections.

On June 24, the electoral commission with its nine judges decided to conduct manual recount for suspected ballot boxes inside and outside Iraq.