Ballot-counting in Iraq isn’t going very well:
Iraqi officials said Wednesday they must recount votes from about 300 ballot boxes because of various discrepancies, delaying final results from the landmark national elections. Hundreds perhaps thousands of other ballots were declared invalid because of alleged tampering.
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Officials had promised final results from the elections by Thursday, the end of the Iraqi work week. On Wednesday, however, election commission spokesman Farid Ayar said the deadline would not be met because of the recount.”We don’t know when this will finish,” he said. ”This will lead to a little postponement in announcing the results.”
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Commission official Adel al-Lami said the ballots in 40 boxes and 250 bags would not be counted because they appeared to have been stuffed inside them or, in some cases, improperly folded. Some of the boxes were not those approved by the commission, and others were improperly sealed, he said.
Already some factions have dismissed the election as illegitimate based on the fact that it was held under occupation. Thousands of Iraqis have protested the election because they weren’t allowed to vote due to shortages of ballots and in some cases, polling centers that were never opened. Now there appear to be some substantial issues with a large number of ballots.