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Thread: Iraq Election Head Rejects Al-Maliki Call for Recount (Update1)

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    Iraq Election Head Rejects Al-Maliki Call for Recount (Update1)

    March 21 (Bloomberg) -- Iraq’s election chief rejected a call for a vote recount by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who is neck-and-neck with his closest rival in parliamentary polls.

    There is no justification for a national vote recount, Faraj al-Haidari, head of the Independent High Electoral Commission, said today in an interview with state television al- Iraqiya. Results in individual polling stations can be appealed, he said.

    With 95 percent of ballots counted, former Iraqi leader Ayad Allawi’s non-sectarian Iraqiya alliance is slightly ahead of al-Maliki’s Shiite Muslim-led State of Law bloc, Karim al- Tamimi, a spokesman for the electoral commission in Baghdad said today. The commission should “respond promptly to the demands of political blocs for a manual recount,” al-Maliki said in a statement posted on his office’s Web site.

    Neither al-Maliki nor Allawi are expected to win the majority in the March 7 elections needed to form a government without the backing of other parties and negotiations may drag on for months. The instability may hamper U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration as it plans to cut troop strength in Iraq from 96,000 to 50,000 by August.

    Al-Maliki had counted on getting significantly more support than any other bloc, giving him the best chance of obtaining a majority of 163 seats in parliament by enlisting smaller groups, said Mustafa Alani, an expert on the region from the Dubai-based Gulf Research Center.

    Second Term

    “There is a lot of doubt now he will be able to stay on in power for a second term,” said Alani. The complaint to the election commission reflects his disappointment.”

    Iraq will announce final election results on March 26, al- Haidari was quoted as saying on the Web site of the Iraqi News Agency today.

    Al-Maliki may win 91 of the 325 seats in parliament, while Allawi is expected to secure 88, Iraqi media reported yesterday.

    The Iraqi National Alliance, a Shiite grouping that rivals al-Maliki’s bloc, remains in third place and is likely to win 68 seats, according to the Iraqi media reports. An alliance of Kurdish parties from northern Iraq is in fourth place and may get about 39 seats.

    President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, also called for a recount in some provinces before final results are issued, according to an e-mailed statement from his office today.

    Election Officials

    Election officials have said the results are likely to be certified by the end of the month after all complaints, including allegations of election fraud, are investigated.

    The commission is ready to carry out recounts in individual polling stations if irregularities emerge in their ballot- counting, al-Haidari said.

    “If there is any doubt in the results, the commission is ready to recount in any station that there is a variation in the numbers that were announced and the results that were handed to the political blocs,” he said.

    Allawi’s spokeswoman Maysoon al-Damluji said al-Maliki’s bloc should pursue any complaints through normal channels.

    “We hope that everyone shows good sportsmanship and accepts their loss,” al-Damluji said in a phone interview.

    Baathist Regime

    Al-Maliki, who became prime minister in 2006, focused his campaign on the reduction of violence over the past four years after the sectarian bloodletting that followed the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. Allawi, who has strong support among the Sunni Muslim minority that dominated Iraq under Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime, has managed to attract secular Shiite voters too, said Alani.

    The U.S. is relying on the election to produce a government that can cement gains in democratic rule and security in advance of the full withdrawal of American troops by the end of 2011, according to a schedule laid out last year by President Barack Obama.

    Iraq’s 115 billion-barrel oil reserve is behind only that of Saudi Arabia and Iran. Iraq pumped about 2.4 million barrels of crude a day last month, according to Bloomberg estimates.

    To contact the reporters on this story: Kadhim Ajrash in Baghdadt ; Henry Meyer in Dubai at hmeyer4@bloomberg.net.

    http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...d=ayrgYAiZQclg

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