Iraq court rules in support of manual recount of parliament votes

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Iraq’s top court ruled on Thursday in support of a parliament-adopted legislative amendment that allows a manual recount of votes in May’s parliament elections.

The federal court emphasized on the legality of the “third amendment” passed by parliament, but turned down the parliament’s decision to cancel votes by Iraqi expatriates.

Iraqi parliament elections were held mid May, the first after the defeat of Islamic State militants following a three-year war. But several political parties challenged the integrity of the electric voting system, urging a manual recount. The calls, and ensuing parliament resolutions and  judicial verdicts supporting them, caused a split among political groups.

According to official results, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s al-Nasr list came third. First came Saeroon list, sponsored by Shia leader, Muqtada al-Sadr, a populist seeking to break away from Iranian influence and scathingly opposed to foreign military presence in Iraq. Second came al-Fatah, an alliance of former leaders of the Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Forces, the Shia-led troops that backed government forces campaign, under Abadi, to drive out Islamic State militants since 2014.