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Nineveh
Sunnis Warn of Charter Vote Fraud
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Ayyar denied charges of counting irregularities in the Sunni province.
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By
Mazen Ghazi, IOL Correspondent
BAGHDAD,
October 23, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Dignitaries and tribal
chieftains in the largely Sunni province of Nineveh have warned of
massive fraud in vote counting of the constitutional referendum,
calling for an international inquiry.
"About
80% of the Nineveh voters retuned "No" vote to the
constitution," the Nineveh Shura Council said in a statement
issued Saturday, October 23.
"This
has motivated collaborators to delay vote results on claims of
verifying what they say a high "Yes" vote in the southern
provinces."
The
Nineveh council stressed that such a fable pretext "substantiates
leaked reports of massive fraud where ballots are being replaced and
new ones with names of voters from Christian villages adjacent to
Mosul are being added."
Iraq
delayed the announcement of the October 15 vote results after the
country's electoral commission said it was rechecking ballots.
The
commission said Saturday that partial resulted showed 81.5 percent of
voters in the Sunni Salaheddin province voted down the controversial
document.
Under
the rules for the referendum, the constitution fails if rejected by a
two-third majority in any three of the 18 provinces and elections to a
new parliament must be held.
There
are majority Sunni populations in four provinces -- Al-Anbar, Diyala,
Nineveh and Salaheddin -- and all reported strong voter turnout.
The
majority of Sunnis are opposed to the charter, basically to the
inclusion of a federalism article because they believe it will divide
Iraq and exclude them from sharing in oil wealth, as reserves are
concentrated mainly in the Kurdish north and Shiite south.
Int'l
Inquiry
The
Nineveh council called on UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Arab League
Secretary General Amr Moussa, currently on a rare visit to Iraq, and
international organizations to interfere to halt vote rigging in the
Sunni province.
It
also pressed for an international inquiry into the rigging charges.
"Otherwise,
this could cause a Sunni boycott of the coming legislative elections,
which is what the Shiite government wants."
The
council urged both Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister
Ibrahim Jaafari to accept the vote results to spare Iraq infighting,
holding them responsible for consequences of the vote irregularities.
The
Iraqi Islamic Party, the country's main Sunni party, has also warned
of massive fraud in the vote results in Nineveh.
Verification
Farid
Ayyar, the spokesman for the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq
(IECI), denied charges of counting irregularities in the Sunni
province.
"This
is part of the political propaganda between the different
parties," he told IslamOnline.net Saturday.
Ayyar
stressed that the commission was auditing results of the
constitutional referendum.
"The
IECI is verifying vote counting in the remaining five Iraqi province
– mainly Sunni Al-Anbar and Nineveh, Kurdish Arbil and Shiite Basra
and Babel -- and once finished, the results will be announced."
The
IECI said Saturday that the provisional results showed several
provinces approving the constitutional draft with more than 90% -
including Najaf with 96%, and Karbala with 90%.
It
said the approval rate in the capital Baghdad was 78%.
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