ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - An official from Kirkuk’s Turkmen Front told Rudaw that they have filed a complaint against technical issues encountered during the provincial council elections, stating that they suspect the voting machines were manipulated and did not contain the data of many Turkmen voters.
Kirkuk saw the highest turnout across Iraq for provincial elections on December 18, with 65 percent of eligible voters casting ballots. This was the first time since 2005 that Kirkuk held provincial elections.
The Turkmen Front received over 75,000 votes in Kirkuk’s elections and was able to garner two spots on the 16-seat council.
“The fingerprints of most Turkmen civilians, more so than the other components, would not be recognized by the voting machines,” Mardin Kogkaya, head of the Turkmen Front’s political procedures, told Rudaw’s Nwenar Fatih earlier this week.
“This has made us suspect that the voting machines were manipulated and the data of Turkmen civilians especially were not sent to Baghdad,” said Kogkaya, claiming that many people were discouraged from going to the vote due to the technical issues.
Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) on Monday revealed that a total of 329 appeals have been filed against the results of the provincial elections, adding that the commission expects to answer all of the cases within three days.
Two amendments made to the provincial council elections law in May, which apply only to Kirkuk, make it difficult to predict who will fill the province’s governor seat next.
One amendment states that “the results of the elections shall not act as a legal or administrative basis to determine the future of Kirkuk province.”
Kirkuk’s future, whether it joins the Kurdistan Region or not, is supposed to be decided through a process set out in the constitution that includes a referendum.
“Power shall be distributed in a fair representation which guarantees the participation of the province’s components regardless of the results of the elections,” reads another amendment.
