ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s electoral body has received more than 870 appeals challenging the final results of the November 11 parliamentary elections, a senior official from the entity confirmed to Rudaw, affirming that the deadline for submitting appeals has expired.
Jumana al-Ghalai, spokesperson for the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), said on Friday that “872 appeals have been lodged regarding the final results of the Iraqi parliamentary elections,” adding that “the window for appeals is now closed.”
She explained that starting next Sunday, the IHEC “will prepare its responses to all appeals within seven days and forward them to the Electoral Judicial Panel,” an affiliate of the Supreme Judicial Council - the highest administrative authority overseeing Iraq’s ordinary judiciary.
Following the panel’s decisions, IHEC’s Board of Commissioners will submit the official results and the names of the winning candidates to Iraq’s highest judicial authority, the Federal Supreme Court, for final ratification, Ghalai added.
Iraq held legislative elections on November 11. The final results were announced on Monday, and the deadline for political parties and candidates to file appeals ended on Thursday.
Interestingly, the notable rise in appeals comes despite another IHEC official, Imad Jamil - who heads the body’s media team - telling Rudaw on Thursday that the number of complaints had reached around 400 by midday.
The vote marked Iraq’s sixth parliamentary election since the fall of the Baath regime in 2003.
According to the IHEC, voter turnout exceeded 55 percent, surpassing expectations and significantly higher than the 41 percent recorded in the October 2021 elections.
Turnout in the Kurdistan Region reached nearly 74 percent.
According to the final results, caretaker Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani’s Reconstruction and Development Coalition (RDC) secured 46 of the 329 seats in parliament.
Meanwhile, the Kurdistan Region’s ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) ranked first in total votes for a single party, receiving more than 1.1 million votes and winning 27 seats.
Importantly, the KDP on Tuesday warned against what it described as “interference in election outcomes - particularly regarding the quota seats - and the altering of outcomes and results,” stressing that such actions “are in no way acceptable and constitute a red line” for the party.
The KDP added that it had heard reports of interference, specifically concerning the quota seats, and cautioned that any changes to the results announced by IHEC would prompt a “serious political stance” from the party.
The remarks came against the backdrop of criticism from another political party, the Kurdistan Justice Group (Komal), whose officials claim that the results were predetermined by powerful political actors.