Iraq: Recounting votes or waste recycling?

The parliament’s approval of the third amendment to the elections law and the federal court’s ruling that this amendment is valid provide conclusive evidence that the recent parliamentary elections in Iraq were forged from the beginning of the process till the very end. It’s no longer possible to debate this or argue about it.

This is not the first or second time that elections were forged. Forgery has been frequent in all electoral processes ever since the first elections were held. The components of the influential political category had some sort of agreement among each other so they covered up wrongdoings and forgery. They all contributed to forging the elections, just like they forged degrees and documents.

The Parliament formed a new commission to recount and sort votes manually and the federal court approved this; however neither the parliament nor the court explained how exposing forgery will be guaranteed and how the authentic votes will be maintained! Is there evidence that there are forged results in specific ballot boxes and in specific vote centers in this or that governorate or area?

Electronic counting

The forgery was not caused by the electronic counting and sorting devices like they want to imply. The forgery was carried out by humans, in this case by the employees of the electoral commission in vote centers. Influential political powers and the electoral commission members that appointed these employees and their supervisors stand behind them. How can the nine judges who were tasked with managing the electoral commission find out who is a forger and who was honest and patriotic and refused to commit this crime of forgery?

How can the nine judges guarantee that the commission’s employees who were the tools of forgery in favor of the parties which appointed them will not go back to their old habit while performing the manual recounting and sorting? In the previous elections, the recounting and sorting process was manual and there were forgery and manipulation.

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In addition to all that, there is forgery that can never be discovered by just adopting a manual recount as for example some political parties and militias forced voters in some areas to vote for certain candidates. Some parties and candidates bribed voters with money or by making promises that they will provide them with jobs.

Some bought vote cards in advance and used them on the elections’ day in favor of certain candidates and some employees at the electoral center “helped” voters, specifically the elderly, the sick and the illiterate, and forged their votes in favor of the candidates which belong to the parties they (the employees) are affiliated with.

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The most important question is: How do nine judges guarantee that forgery won’t happen this time and that they won’t be clueless?

The real problem is not in the electronic recounting and sorting devices and not in the high electoral commission and not in the commission’s employees. The problem is in the political system which has been built on a false basis: quotas. What is built on illegitimacy is illegitimate. Therefore, this whole “mess” which began with holding the elections and concluded with amending the electoral law and the federal court’s approval of this amendment will only yield one result which is recycling the waste of the political process which has been corrupt and false from the very beginning.

This article is also available in Arabic.

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Adnan Hussein is the executive editor-in-chief of Al-Mada newspaper and head of the National Union of Iraqi journalists. Previously, he has held the position of Managing Editor in Asharq al-Awsat newspaper. He tweets under the handle @adnanhussein.