Iraq's Electoral Commission annulled results from 227 ballot boxes yesterday, upholding complaints of irregularities in the Dec. 15 election, but said this would have little effect on results already announced.
Final results -- based on tallies from some 31,000 ballot boxes -- would be published on Friday, Electoral Commissioner Adel al-Lamy said adding these would be in line with partial, provisional counts given some weeks ago and noting that political parties would have two days after that to lodge protests before the results can be certified as definitive.
Irregularities were found across the country, Lamy added.
Sunni Arab and secular parties complained of massive fraud in the election but Sunni leaders have already begun discussing joining a grand coalition government with the dominant Shiite Islamists and the Kurdish bloc.
In a bid to appease protests, a four-strong team of international experts was brought in to review the election process; the team has said it will publish its findings on Thursday. The organization to which the experts belong has, like the UN, already said the vote was largely fair.
Near final tallies of seat allocations show that the Shiite Alliance will fall about nine seats short of the absolute majority it had in the 275-member interim assembly, which was boycotted by the main Sunni groups.
Sunni and Kurdish parties will have about a fifth of the seats each.
Meanwhile a helicopter crashed north of Baghdad yesterday, but the status of the two-man crew wasn't immediately known It was not immediately known what caused the helicopter to crash.
In further violence, a car bomb detonated next to a police convoy killing six people.
Police and hospital officials said the bomb killed a six-year-old child and five police officers in Muqdadiya, about 90km north of the capital.
Elsewhere, the tribunal overseeing the trial of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein case confirmed on Sunday that Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin submitted his resignation for ``personal reasons'' and not because of government pressure. It said the trial of Saddam and seven co-defendants would reconvene Jan. 24 as scheduled despite the uncertainties surrounding Amin.
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)