Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) officially announced the outcome of the manual recount of the May parliamentary elections votes, preparing the nation for their ratification.
According to IHEC sources, results were sent to the Federal Court.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the sources said the ratification process may take up to 15 days and is likely to start at the beginning of next month.
Parliament ordered the recount in June after widespread allegations of fraud cast doubt on the integrity of the ballot. The IHEC said the results of the recount matched the initial results from 13 of Iraq’s 18 provinces.
At a time when political blocs were engaged in several negotiations to form the largest parliamentary bloc, the recount’s results is seen as a positive step for finalizing talks on forming the next government.
Speaking on whether political alliances will change after the ratification of the elections results, Anbar governor Mohamed Al Halbusi told Asharq Al-Awsat that his party’s “alliance is currently engaged in dialogues with everyone, pending the final ratification.”
Running for the post of parliament speaker, Halbusi said that he hopes for a future government program being successfully presented and agreed upon by Iraqi political forces.
He also hoped for alliances to come together and form a productive majority parliamentary bloc so that it shoulders responsibility towards the people, who will not wait any longer to have their rights fulfilled.
Halbusi called upon losers in the election to respect results, saying that it is natural to have both a winner and a loser. He urged restraint to stop Iraq from going into a downward spiral of unrest.
For its part, Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s Victory Alliance announced the formation of a negotiations committees to conduct dialogue with the political blocs.
Victory Alliance senior official Riad al-Tamimi confirmed in a statement that the committee is aimed at put together the largest parliamentary bloc.
Abadi will visit in upcoming days the Kurdistan region to hold talks with top Kurdish parties, such as the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.