By Ranjan Bhaduri
Baghdad, Mar 22, (THAINDIAN NEWS) The election commission of Iraq has denied the calls of the country’s PM and president for a recount of the votes cast in the general election which was held on March 7. It was said by an election official that the idea of recounting all the votes was neither necessary nor possible. PM Nouri Maliki, and Jalal Talabani, the president supported a manual vote recall. Nouri Maliki and Iyad Allawi, former PM is going close as is evident from the partial results. The delay in coming up with full result has given rise to fraud charges as well as a recount demand. The IHEC said that it is not possible to start recounting votes from the scratch. This will result in wastage of time as it as commented.

The IHEC chief, Faraj Al-Haidari said that manual recounting only takes place if the evidence of a gross electoral malpractice is given and no such proof has been produced by those who want a recount. He also said that the votes were counted by means of the latest election software which is much more accurate than manual method. He also added that recount at a particular voting center is possible but not all over the nation. The lawmakers are apprehending violence if the election frauds are proved.

The public opinion is divided on the recount of votes with a section claiming that the demand on IHEC to go for a manual recount is not justified. On the contrary, some political veterans think that IHEC’s decision to refuse the recount may give rise to more violence in the country and it would make restoring democracy impossible.