Maliki calls for vote recount in Iraq's elections
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Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al- Maliki called Sunday on the country's electoral commission to recount the vote of the country's March 7 elections.
In a statement of his office, Maliki called on the Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) to positively respond to the demands of the political blocs to recount the votes of the parliamentary elections.
He said in the statement that "I am as the executive official responsible for the drawing and implementing the policy of the country and as the commander in chief, I call for the IHEC to immediate response for the demands of the political blocs (recount votes) to safeguard the political stability and not return to violence."
On Saturday, the IHEC released the 92 percent of the country's partial results of parliamentary elections, showing Maliki's rival, former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's Iraqia bloc collected 2,543, 632 votes and Maliki's State of Law coalition garnered 2,535,704.
Maliki's demand on Sunday threatens the country's fragile political process to enter a new deadlock which would delay the announcement of the final preliminary results and put negative impacts on the future of the country's fresh democracy.
With the 92 percent of the votes count of Iraq's 18 provinces, Maliki appeared winning in six Shiite southern provinces and Baghdad, the largest constituency with 70 seats, but he failed to lead in three other Shiite southern provinces which was won by his rival Shiite Iraqi National Alliance (INA).
Allawi, on the other hand, made a strong appearance in four of Iraq's Sunni province and pulled ahead in the fifth, Kirkuk, where he was close to the rival Kurdish bloc which prevailed in the three Kurdish provinces in the semi-autonomous region in northern Iraq.
On March 7, some 62.4 percent of more than 18 million eligible voters turned out in some 8,920 polling centers across the country to vote for the 325-seat Iraqi Council of Representatives out of some 6,300 candidates.
