Iraq commission, UN dismiss MEP's election fraud concerns

Iraq's electoral commission lashed out on Saturday (13 March) at accusations of "widespread fraud" and incompetence from the European Parliament's chair of Iraq delegation.

On Thursday, Struan Stevenson, the UK Conservative chairman of the parliament's delegation for relations with Iraq, announced that he had compiled a 35-page dossier outlining allegations of electoral fraud primarily benefiting the incumbent, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

Mr al-Maliki is leading in seven provinces and some Baghdad neighbourhoods, according to early poll results from the 7 March general election.

But Mr Stevenson has urged EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton to not recognise the result as legitimate.

"I'll be providing my edited dossier to the parliament and to Baroness Ashton's office on Wednesday," he said in a statement. The "widespread fraud ...amounted to a plan to drive Iraq into a crisis."

"The steady flow of allegations has now become a flood."

"In the past 36 hours I have received first-hand accounts of countless blank ballots being filled in primarily to benefit [Mr al-Maliki's] State of Law coalition [in Baghdad]," the MEP explained. "Many thousands of ballot papers marked in favour of [the opposition] Iraqiya list ...had been discovered on a Baghdad rubbish dump."

"Tehran's fingerprints are all over [the alleged fraud]," he said.

Elsewhere, media reports have suggested delays in delivering the count and problems with the levels of staff monitoring the election. The opposition Iraqiya list, led by former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, also claimed in a news conference there had been "rigging to an extent that would render the elections useless."

Backlash against EU mission

The chairman of the Independent High Electoral Commission of Iraq (IHEC), Faraj al-Hayderi, has accused Mr Stevenson of producing a "complete fabrication," however.

He also complained that the euro-deputy had not spoken to EU observers on the ground: "He had nothing to do with the Iraqi elections. He's sitting over in Brussels and it's his own opinion," Mr al-Hayderi said.


The IHEC chief's comments have been backed up by the United Nations mission in the country. Sandra Mitchell, the director of elections for the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (Unami), said the delivery of results had been timely and that accusations of understaffing were baseless.

"From the UN's perspective, there is no delay and the counts are being released on schedule as planned," she said. "I don't think you could get many more staff into this facility, or that they could work any harder."

"There have been no voluminous complaints of fraud coming from any party," she added. "We are aware that some political parties are claiming they have filed thousands of complaints ...So where are they?"

Iran connection?

The MEP has long been close to the People's Mujahedeen of Iran (PMOI), an Iranian militant opposition group with camps based in Iraq. In January, 2009, Mr al-Maliki told the group they would no longer be able to base themselves on Iraqi soil.

In July last year, Mr Stevenson said Mr al-Maliki's government was guilty of "war crimes" after clashes between the PMOI and Iraqi forces.

Ahead of the elections, the euro-deputy said Iran was spending heavily to ensure "that their own pro-Iranian candidates emerge victorious."

"I have had a series of deeply worrying phone calls and emails from senior political figures in Iraq which have confirmed my worst fears. There are reports of the Iranians sending hundreds of millions of dollars to various parts of Iraq to buy people's votes," he said.

"I have also been told that lorries carrying stuffed ballot boxes from Iran are being slipped across the border to Iraq."