Sunni and secular Shiites stage protest in Baghdad against Election Commission
Baghdad (AsiaNews/Agencies) Thousands of protestors staged a protest in the streets of Baghdad and Tikrit against what they allege are "rigged" December 15 election results. Unofficial sources give clerical Shiite and Kurdish parties an overwhelming majority.
Amid tight security, the few hundred protesters that started off in Baghdad's western neighbourhood of al-Mansur turned into thousandsanywhere between 5,000 and 10,000.
The march was organised by the 'Conference Rejecting Rigged Elections' or MARAN, an alliance of 42 Sunni and secular Shia parties and factions. Independent candidate Ali al-Tamimi is its spokesman, whilst former interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi is its representative at talks with other parties.
Protesters carried banners saying "MARAN says no to the Election Commission"; "No to the division of Iraq"; "We want free elections"; "No democracy without real elections".
Unlike the thousands who protested in the capital, in Saddam Hussein's home town of Tikrit only a few hundred showed up to demonstrate .
The rally was designed to "show the Iraqi people's rejection of the ballot-rigging in the election," al-Tamimi said. "We want the Commission changed," he added.
The protest was also meant to exert pressure on the Arab League and the United Nations to seriously consider the claims of electoral fraud and rigged results allegedly orchestrated by the Election Commission.
So far the Commission has released partial results for about 90 per cent of the voteclerical Shiite and Kurdish parties appear to have a wide margin of victory.
Sunnis, who unlike previous elections participated in large numbers this time, are disappointed by the results. The same is true for secular Shiites associated with former interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.
Both camps have alleged electoral fraud, including the arrival from Iran of false ballots.
The Election Commission has excluded the possibility of repeating the vote, but has stated that it will examine every complaint. So far, it said it has received about 1,500 complaints.
It has also stated that the need to vet each one of them is delaying the release of the final tally.
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