UN official says Iraqi elections credible; Chalabi defeated at polls
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-29 10:21

In yet another political demonstration, more than 4,000 people rallied Wednesday in Samarra, a predominantly Sunni Arab town 60 miles (100 kilometers) north of Baghdad. Demonstrators carried banners reading, "We refuse the election forgery."

Prominent Sunni candidate Saleh al-Mutlaq, who has joined forces with Allawi's secular group to protest what they have described as rampant fraud, said he was angered by Jenness' remarks. He again demanded an independent review of about 1,500 complaints, including 50 or so deemed serious enough to affect the results in some areas.

"The U.N. stand provokes our astonishment because they have not responded to our complaints, which we have submitted," al-Mutlaq told The Associated Press by telephone. "This statement provokes anger and frustration."

He said without elaboration that the U.N. should "check our complaints and then express its views."

Iraqi officials said they had found some instances of fraud that were enough to cancel the results in some places but not to hold another vote in any district.

Craig Jenness, a United Nations official, far right, and Ferid Ayar, far left, an Iraqi Electoral Commission official, address a news conference organized by the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, or IECI, in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday Dec. 28, 2005. [AP]

"After studying all the complaints, and after the manual and electronic audit of samples of ballot boxes in the provinces, the electoral commission will announce within the next few days some decisions about canceling the results in stations where fraud was found," said Abdul Hussein Hendawi, an elections official.

He said fraud was discovered in the provinces of Baghdad, Irbil, Ninevah, Kirkuk, Anbar and Diyala.

Allawi said the election commission should also take into account political violence before the vote.

"There were gross intimidations throughout the country, and especially in certain provinces in the south, and Baghdad too, preceding the elections," Allawi told CNN. "There were assassinations. We had numbers of people on my slate who had been killed, shot and killed, and supporters who have been killed. There were attempts to assassinate others, and they were badly injured."

But Jenness said the U.N. saw no reason to hold a new election.

"Complaints must be adjudicated fairly, but we in the United Nations see no justification in calls for a rerun of any election," he said.

Preliminary results from the vote have given the governing Shiite religious bloc, the United Iraqi Alliance, a big lead _ but one which still would require forming a coalition with other groups.

The Shiite bloc held further talks with Kurdish leaders Wednesday and said preparations were being made to choose a candidate for prime minister, who they have said must come from the United Iraqi Alliance.

Alliance officials have indicated the likely candidates for prime minister are current Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, who heads the Islamic Dawa party, and Adel Abdul-Mahdi, who belongs to the other main Shiite party, the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.