March 22, 2010, (Pen Men at Work): The calls from the president and prime minister of Iraq for a recount have rejected by the Iraq Election Commission. The general election was held on March 7th, 2010.

The commission feels that necessary precautions have been taken to ward of frauds and the need for a recount is uncalled for. President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has requested for a manual recount of the votes cast in the general elections.

Mr. Saad el-Rawi of the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) voiced his opinion says, “We can’t restart the counting, it just can’t be done. We cannot begin again and restart counting the votes.” The allegations for fraud were voiced when there was a delay in announcing the full results, and the Partial results had indicated a close race between Prime Minister Mr. Maliki and former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.

However, Mr. Saad el-Rawi also said, “The recount is possible but it will take a lot of time.” He added, “We have more than 50,000 polling stations and about 350,000 election officials. It would be impractical to send the ballot boxes to the stations and demand a recount.”

Some other IHEC officials have said that request for recounts from selected districts could be made if the candidates suspect foul play.

After counting around 90% votes, the IHEC declared a nearly 8,000 vote lead for Mr. Allawi’s Iraqiya political bloc. The final results of the general elections will be declared at the end of the month, that is, if the pleas for the recount are not considered.