'US might manipulate Iraq election results'
Press TV
INA candidate Entifadh Qanbar told Press TV that the United States might try to intervene in the process of vote counting through the High Electoral Commission.
"The concern is that how the ballots from each voting center are going to be processed in the computer center inside the Electoral Commission," Qanbar said.
"The reason we are insisting on this issue is that we are afraid there is some sort of American intervention inside the Electoral Commission in processing these numbers and may be altering these numbers," he added.
Qanbar said that his alliance would not "accept any election results without putting the ballots out to prove that the ballots have been processed and entered in the computer system in a proper way."
The Election Commission has postponed until Thursday the announcement of the preliminary results of the country's parliamentary elections with reports suggesting that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's the State of Law Coalition is ahead.
Meeting with vote-counters at the Independent High Electoral Commission on Wednesday, top United Nations envoy Ad Melkert called on election officials to release the results as soon as possible, AP reported.
"Now we hope, that as soon as possible, preliminary results can be made public because Iraqis have the right to know as soon as possible what is the outcome of their choice of the Election Day," Melkert said.
Election Commission officials also withdrew an earlier announcement that the preliminary results would be released Wednesday night.
According to Qassim al-Aboudi, a senior member of the panel, initial results would likely be released on Thursday.
SB/RE
March 10, 2010