BAGHDAD —
Iraq's top court on Monday ratified the country's October parliamentary
election results after rejecting a complaint of irregularities filed by the
pro-Iran Hashed Al-Shaabi former paramilitary alliance.
اضافة اعلان
The long-awaited ruling will allow
parliament to meet and pave the way for the election of a president who will
then appoint a prime minister tasked with forming a new government.
Iraq is trying to recover from years of war
and Islamist extremist violence but remains hobbled by political divisions,
corruption and poverty.
The ratification follows a delay of more
than two months since the October 10 legislative polls won by Shiite cleric
Moqtada Sadr, a political maverick and former anti-
US militia leader who
opposes all foreign interference.
Sadr's movement won more than a fifth of the
seats — 73 out of the assembly's total 329, well ahead of the 17 seats of the
Fatah (Conquest) Alliance, the political arm of the pro-Iran Hashed.
That was sharply down from the Alliance's 48
seats in the outgoing assembly. Hashed leaders rejected the result as a
"fraud".
They took their case to court seeking
"to have the results annulled" because of "serious
violations", their lawyer said earlier in December when the hearing began.
Judge Jassem Mohamed Aboud of the
Federal Supreme Court on Monday said the tribunal "rejects the request of the
plaintiffs... not to ratify the final results of the election".
He declared the judgment "binding on
all authorities".
Later the court media officer announced that
the body "has ratified the results of the legislative elections".
The
Hashed had also organized protests over
the preliminary election results. Political tensions soared, and in November at
least one protester was killed and more than 100 injured when police clashed
with demonstrators.
The Fatah Alliance alleged the electronic
voting system had failed to recognize the fingerprint identification of many
voters.
On Monday, Fatah Alliance leader Hadi Al-Ameri
reiterated "the profound conviction that the electoral process was tainted
by fraud and manipulations."
He said he would accept the court's verdict
but accused it of coming under "heavy pressure."
Iraqi analyst Ihsan Al-Shamari said that was
not the case.
"The most important thing about the
verdict is that the judiciary did not bow to pressure from the losing
parties," he said.
Complex negotiations
Judge Aboud, reading out the verdict, said
the court also decided to make the plaintiffs bear the costs of the appeal.
In multi-confessional and multi-ethnic Iraq,
the formation of governments has involved complex negotiations ever since the
2003 US-led invasion toppled dictator Saddam Hussein.
The prime minister tasked with forming a
cabinet line-up will be, according to tradition, chosen by the largest
parliamentary coalition.
Sadr, a self-styled defender against all
forms of corruption, has repeatedly said that the next prime minister will be
chosen by his movement.
He has also demanded that the new government
include members of political parties and blocs which scored highly in the
October polls.
The scion of an influential clerical family
who led a militia against the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, has distinguished
himself from other Shiite factions by seeking to distance himself from both
Iranian and US influences.
The Hashed alliance, which helped defeat
Daesh,
holds opposing views.
It has said that the choice of a new prime
minister should be made through compromise.
Backed by
Iran and supported by 160,000
fighters who are now integrated into the regular armed forces of Iraq, the
alliance remains a force to be reckoned with despite its losses in the October
vote.
Aboud said the new parliament should amend
Iraq's electoral law and opt for a manual count of ballots in order to protect
the credibility and transparency of future elections.
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