ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Investigations into appeals filed over the parliamentary election results have led to changes in five seats, Iraq’s electoral body said on Monday. The changes are in Erbil, Nineveh, Kirkuk, Baghdad and Basra provinces, Imad Jamil, a member of the commission’s media team, told state media as the judiciary is doing a final review of the outcome of the complaint process. A total of 1,436 complaints have been submitted, Jamil added. He had previously said that most appeals were rejected - only 21 were investigated and six resulted in the cancellation of results from some polling stations. Iraq held a parliamentary election on October 10 and the electoral commission announced full preliminary results a week later, with the Sadrist Movement, Taqadum, Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), and State of Law Coalition securing the most seats. Parties affiliated with the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF or Hashd al-Shaabi in Arabic) performed poorly and the Fatih Alliance saw its parliamentary seats reduced by two thirds. The PMF-allied parties have rejected the results and their supporters have staged repeated protests. Qais al-Khazali, secretary-general of Asaib Ahl al-Haq, one of the pro-Iranian PMF militias, met with the head of the United Nations mission in Iraq earlier this month and said he presented her with evidence of electoral fraud. The electoral commission began sending their appeal investigations to the judiciary on Sunday. The court is expected to announce final results by the end of the week, according to Jamil. Within 15 days of the Supreme Court’s ratification of the results, the current president will call for a parliamentary meeting chaired by its eldest member to elect a speaker and two deputies by an absolute majority. The parliament then elects a new president by a two-thirds majority who will task the largest parliamentary bloc with naming a prime minister. The prime minister-elect then has 30 days to name a cabinet.
