Council of Ministers approves 5-percent Iraqi election recount
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The Council of Ministers has decided for 5 percent of votes across all polling stations to be recounted and for IDP and diaspora votes to be cancelled, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced on Tuesday, while rebuffing Turkish violations of Iraq’s sovereignty, and calling reports of water scarcity a scare campaign.
"The Council of Ministers approved the conclusions and recommendations. The conclusions contain detailed information that call for worry,” Abadi said in his weekly press conference on Tuesday.
His announcement came upon recommendations of a committee that was formed for investigating the irregularities of Iraq’s parliamentary election on May 12.
One of the Council’s recommendations included a 5-percent manual across Iraq. Another was the cancellation of diaspora and IDP votes.
"The cancellations of the diaspora and the displaced election results are due to violations and serious fraud,” Abadi said.
Directions have been given to national security and intelligence apparatus to find those complicit, added Abadi.
The Council of Ministers also decided that members of Iraq’s High Independent Electoral Commission will have to obtain permission from the prime minister to travel abroad.
"The committee uncovered dangerous things, frankly. The committee concluded that the commission is responsible for the majority of the mistakes,” Abadi contended, while saying he didn’t favor a re-do of elections.
The elections resulted in many parties rejecting the process, with six Kurdish parties calling for a re-vote of the elections in the Kurdistan Region and the disputed territories, while others have been asking for a manual recount.
Last week, Iraq’s parliament decided to manually recount of 5 percent of votes, cancel IDP votes except for Nineveh and diaspora votes. The decision was called unconstitutional by Iraqi President Fuad Masum, who then referred the issue to Iraq’s Federal Court which is yet to make a decision.
Water scarcity
Abadi claimed there is a systematic campaign to scare people of water issues by fabricating pictures.
"We observed that there is an organized and systematic campaign to scare people, whether in water and fabricated pictures of the Tigris River circulating. It is an effort to scare people when it comes to water,” Abadi claimed.
"There is scarcity, but it hasn't become a crisis,” added Abadi, assuring Iraqis of plans and “healthy measures” to ensure water resources.
He said there is drinking water and that the government has plans to provide for summer agriculture.
"Violating water sharing between provinces is absolutely unacceptable,” Abadi warned.
He rebuffed the comments made by Turkey’s ambassador to Iraq that they were aware of Turkey’s plans to fill the Ilusu dam beginning from June 1.
"No, we don't know. The prime minister of Turkey promised me at the end of June, not the beginning. For a simple reason, and that is because this period is the period of filling the dams. We have to complete the filling our dams before they start filling the Ilusu dam,” said Abadi.
He categorized filling the Ilusu dam starting from June 1 as "a violation and a mistake". He claimed that the government of Turkey may have been trying to win over its southern farmers by filling early.
Turkey announced it has doubled its troop presence in the Kurdistan Region.
"The Council of Ministers approved the conclusions and recommendations. The conclusions contain detailed information that call for worry,” Abadi said in his weekly press conference on Tuesday.
His announcement came upon recommendations of a committee that was formed for investigating the irregularities of Iraq’s parliamentary election on May 12.
Last week a high committee were formed by the Council of Ministers, the integrity commission, intelligence apparatus and, and other branches of the government to search for and report on irregularities.
One of the Council’s recommendations included a 5-percent manual across Iraq. Another was the cancellation of diaspora and IDP votes.
"The cancellations of the diaspora and the displaced election results are due to violations and serious fraud,” Abadi said.
Directions have been given to national security and intelligence apparatus to find those complicit, added Abadi.
The Council of Ministers also decided that members of Iraq’s High Independent Electoral Commission will have to obtain permission from the prime minister to travel abroad.
"The committee uncovered dangerous things, frankly. The committee concluded that the commission is responsible for the majority of the mistakes,” Abadi contended, while saying he didn’t favor a re-do of elections.
The elections resulted in many parties rejecting the process, with six Kurdish parties calling for a re-vote of the elections in the Kurdistan Region and the disputed territories, while others have been asking for a manual recount.
Last week, Iraq’s parliament decided to manually recount of 5 percent of votes, cancel IDP votes except for Nineveh and diaspora votes. The decision was called unconstitutional by Iraqi President Fuad Masum, who then referred the issue to Iraq’s Federal Court which is yet to make a decision.
Water scarcity
Abadi claimed there is a systematic campaign to scare people of water issues by fabricating pictures.
"We observed that there is an organized and systematic campaign to scare people, whether in water and fabricated pictures of the Tigris River circulating. It is an effort to scare people when it comes to water,” Abadi claimed.
"There is scarcity, but it hasn't become a crisis,” added Abadi, assuring Iraqis of plans and “healthy measures” to ensure water resources.
He said there is drinking water and that the government has plans to provide for summer agriculture.
"Violating water sharing between provinces is absolutely unacceptable,” Abadi warned.
He rebuffed the comments made by Turkey’s ambassador to Iraq that they were aware of Turkey’s plans to fill the Ilusu dam beginning from June 1.
"No, we don't know. The prime minister of Turkey promised me at the end of June, not the beginning. For a simple reason, and that is because this period is the period of filling the dams. We have to complete the filling our dams before they start filling the Ilusu dam,” said Abadi.
He categorized filling the Ilusu dam starting from June 1 as "a violation and a mistake". He claimed that the government of Turkey may have been trying to win over its southern farmers by filling early.
Turkey announced it has doubled its troop presence in the Kurdistan Region.
"We won't accept any trespassing on Iraqi soil. We won't accept for Iraqi soil to be used to attack any neighboring country, including Turkey,” said Abadi.
He said that the Turkish presence in the north of the country, especially in the Kurdistan Region, is waning and getting smaller, and that they consider any increase of the presence violation of Iraq's sovereignty.
"We won't accept violating Iraq's sovereignty, even if it is for a Turkish election campaign,” Abadi warned.