Iraq parliament requests dismissal of 13 senior officials in elections commission

The Iraqi parliament requested yesterday that 13 senior officials from the elections commission be dismissed before the manual counting of votes begins, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported.

Based on the ruling of the High Federal Court the judges, who monitor the elections commission, decided on Sunday to manually recount votes in a number of polling centres where there were claims of fraud.

Head of the Commission Adel Al-Nouri said that 13 senior officials have been accused of forging the parliamentary elections and they must be dismissed before the start of the manual counting.

Al-Nouri also said that dismissing the members of the elections commission is not enough because the employees are able to forge the elections even during the attendance of the commissioned judges.

Sa‌eron Coalition, backed by the Shia leader Muqtada Al-Sadr, won the largest number of seats – 54 out of 329 – in the parliament during the last elections, followed by Al-Fateh who won 47, Al-Nasser headed by the current Prime Minister Haidar Al-Abadi at 42, and the State of Law headed by the former Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki who won 26 seats.