Iraq: IHEC Rejects 174 Appeals and Accepts 7

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The Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) began to study the appeals submitted and audited by the relevant department, as 181 appeals were presented to the Board of Commissioners.

Following necessary measures and submitted recommendations, the commission suggested the dismissal of 174 appeals and the acceptance of seven, as follows: Baghdad 2, Basra 1, Erbil number 1, and Nineveh 3.

"In light of this, the contested stations will be opened under those appeals and in accordance with Article 38 of the Electoral Law," the commission added. 

The commission has also announced that the results will be sorted and counted manually at these stations in the presence of representatives of competing candidates.

Dates, procedures, and mechanisms will be determined later, it said.

On his account, the Director of the Media and Mass Communication Department at the Commission, Hassan Salman said that "the commission looks at the appeals submitted with one perspective and calls for every case in which the appropriate action can be taken, even if it will be prolonged," stressing that “the issue of resolving appeals is not linked to a specified period, but rather to the situation that calls for it”.

Earlier, the Higher Committee for Protests demanded the adoption of a comprehensive manual count in future elections.

The committee called the Electoral Commission's performance "a failure" and demanded the prosecution of its members.

In a related development, the Supreme Judicial Council confirmed that "no judicial decision has been issued so far regarding the election results," despite the fact that protests continue in Baghdad and other Iraqi provinces "in rejection of the election results."

Furthermore, the Iraqi High Electoral Commission (IHEC) announced on Wednesday, that it had received well over a thousand appeals from candidates or others who objected to some aspect of the results of parliamentary elections.