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On May 13, an unnamed official of the Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) told Reuters that a list of Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, the “Victory Alliance”, is leading in Iraq’s parliamentary election followed by the alliance of well-known Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
Initial reports from Iraq suggested that the “State of Law Coalition” list, which is led by former Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, didn’t do as well as expected in the Iraqi parliamentary election, althought it would secure a high numer of votes in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.
Meanwhile, the IHEC stressed in a statement that all the reports regarding the results of the Iraqi parliamentary election are not official and that has not released any information about the election yet. The commission added that the official results will be released within two days.
In a related development, clashes erupted in the city of al-Sulaymaniyah in eastern Kurdistan between the supporters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Gorran Movement, according to Iraqi sources.
The PUK announced on May 12 that it had won the majority of the Kurdish seats in the Iraqi parliament. Following this claim, the Gorran Movement and three other Iraqi Kurdish parties accused the PUK of election fraud.
In an attempt to control the situation in the Kurdistan region, al-Abadi ordered the security forces to remain neutral and to secure the election process. The Iraqi PM also asked the IHEC to inspect the ballot boxes and the Vote Counting Machines (VCMs), which were the source of complains by several parties.
According to observers, the initial results of the Iraqi parliamentary election didn’t show any surprises. If al-Abadi’s list manages to secure its victory, he will likely remain in the PM office for another 4 years.
Good call PM Abadi.