Iraq’s contentious parliamentary poll: A timeline

ANKARA (AA) - Results of Iraq’s May 12 parliamentary polls remain dogged by dispute and controversy, replete with widespread allegations of vote-rigging and calls for a manual vote recount.

The following is a brief timeline of developments:

May 10: Security personnel in Kirkuk cast ballots in advance of nationwide polls slated for two days later. Hundreds of Iraqi security personnel are reportedly prevented from voting. Local authorities attribute the problems to malfunctioning electronic voting machines.

May 12: Iraqis cast ballots in nationwide polls. According to Iraq’s official election commission, 10.8 million eligible voters (out of 24 million) take part in the election, putting turnout at some 44.5 percent.

On the same day, Kirkuk’s Turkmen cry foul, alleging that the vote was rigged.

May 13: Unidentified gunmen attack the headquarters of the Gorran Movement in Sulaymaniyah. The attack comes shortly after the movement had lodged a formal complaint about alleged electoral violations.

On the same day, a leading member of the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) questions the integrity of electronic voting in Sulaymaniyah and demands a manual recount. With the exception of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), all major parties in the Kurdish region complain of alleged poll violations.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi orders stepped-up security in the Kurdish region amid angry protests against preliminary poll results.

May 14: Iraq’s official electoral commission announces initial poll results that give the Sairoon coalition 54-56 seats; the Al-Fatih Bloc 40-44 seats; the Al-Nasr Bloc 40-42 seats; the Al-Wataniya coalition 29 seats; the State of Law coalition 24 seats; the KDP 23 seats; the National Wisdom Movement 22 seats; and the Al-Qarar coalition 18 seats.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi Turkmen Front voices concern over mounting tension in Kirkuk, where Turkmen take to the streets to protest alleged electoral fraud.

On the same day, PM al-Abadi orders a recount of all votes cast in Kirkuk.

May 15: Unidentified perpetrators attack a religious institution in southern Iraq affiliated with Muqtada al-Sadr, whose Sairoon coalition dominated the polls, according to initial results.

The electoral commission announces that the PUK won the polls in Kirkuk, while the KDP won in the northern Dohuk province. Arab and Turkmen officials, for their part, say the polling was rigged with the use of electronic voting machines.

May 17: Turkmen demonstrate outside the UN’s office in Erbil to protest alleged electoral fraud.

May 18: Initial poll results appear to prompt a dispute between members of the electoral commission itself, which rejects calls for a manual recount.

May 19: The commission announces final results, giving the Sairoon coalition 54 seats in Iraq’s 328-seat assembly; the Hashd al-Shaabi-linked Al-Fatih coalition 47 seats; and al-Abadi’s Al-Nasr Bloc 42 seats.

May 20: Al-Abadi and al-Sadr call for the speedy formation of a new government amid persistent calls for a manual recount.

May 21: The electoral commission annuls all ballots cast at 103 polling stations.

May 22: Former Vice-President Iyad Allawi, who leads the Al-Wataniya Alliance, decries what he describes as ‘dubious’ actions by the electoral commission.

Al-Abadi’s Al-Nasr Bloc reaches agreement with al-Sadr’s Sairoon coalition on the formation of a new government.

May 24: The Kurdish Regional Government’s official electoral commission says it will not use electronic voting machines in regional polls slated for September.

May 27: Al-Sadr declares that Iraq’s parliament has no jurisdiction to annul final poll results.

May 28: Parliament annuls the May 10 overseas vote and calls for a manual recount of roughly 10 percent of all ballots cast on May 12.

May 29: The electoral commission warns of potential civil unrest in the event that poll results are overturned.

The PUK, for its part, vows to lodge a legal complaint against parliament’s decision to cancel the overseas vote.

May 30: The electoral commission annuls all votes cast at 1,021 out of 53,000 ballot boxes used nationwide.

May 31: The commission says it will not comply with the parliamentary decision to annul the expatriate vote.

On the same day, the UN’s Iraq envoy calls on the country’s political leadership to draw up an ‘inclusive’ government.