Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki's party has called for a recount in five of the country's 18 provinces after saying its investigation into the March 7th parliamentary elections shows it was deprived of 750,000 votes.
The Shia Muslim State of Law party came second in the ballot, winning 89 seats compared with the 91 garnered by former prime minister Ayad Allawi's secular Iraqiya bloc. Both groups are seeking allies to form a governing coalition after failing to secure an outright majority of 163 seats from the 325 available in parliament.
The State of Law party said it found irregularities in ballots from the provinces of Basra, Baghdad, Qadissiyah, Anbar and Nineveh. These included miscalculations of voting tallies, alterations to ballots and discrepancies in signatures, according to documents posted on the party's website late yesterday.
United Nations envoy to Iraq, Ad Melkert, has said the election, in which 11.5 million votes were cast, was "credible" and met "all reasonable demands and standards".
Final results will be certified once an Iraqi appeals committee concludes its examination of complaints. There is no official deadline for this process.
Bloomberg
