The skies cleared over Baghdad yesterday after a sandstorm, and provinces resumed flying ballot boxes here so they can be checked by election officials investigating "unusually high" vote totals in 12 Shiite and Kurdish provinces, where as many as 99 percent of the voters reportedly approved Iraq's draft constitution.
The investigation by Iraq's election commission, which it announced on Monday, has raised the possibility that the results of the referendum could be called into question.
Meanwhile, insurgents resumed attacks that had fallen sharply during Saturday's vote at heavily protected polling stations across the country.
PHOTO: AFP
In Baghdad, militants shot and killed an adviser to one of Iraq's top Sunni Arab officials as he drove to work yesterday, police said.
In fighting in western Iraq, two US Marines and four militants were killed near the town of Rutba, not far from the Jordanian border, on Monday, the military said.
At least 1,978 members of the US military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in Mar. 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
On Monday, the US military announced that its warplanes and helicopters had bombed two western villages the day before, killing an estimated 70 militants near a site where five US soldiers died in a roadside blast. But residents said at least 39 of the dead were civilians, including children.
"The sandstorm ended Monday night, ballots boxes are now arriving here again from the provinces, and our employees have resumed their counting," Adil al-Lami, head of the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, said yesterday.
"If we suspect that the numbers are higher or lower than we expected, we have to double-check them, and this audit means it might be several more days before we announce the final outcome," he said. "We are not concerned whether the outcome is `yes' or `no.' We are only interested in making the process technically a success."
He said the commission is "a neutral body" acting "as a referee."
The investigation by the commission in Iraq's landmark referendum has raised questions about irregularities in the balloting.
Word of the review came Monday as Sunni Arab leaders repeated accusations of fraud after initial reports from the provinces suggested the constitution had passed. Among the Sunni allegations are that police took ballot boxes from heavily "no" districts, and that some "yes" areas had more votes than registered voters.
The Electoral Commission made no mention of fraud, and an official with knowledge of the election process cautioned that it was too early to say whether the unusual numbers were incorrect or if they would affect the outcome. But questions about the numbers raised tensions over Saturday's referendum, which has already sharply divided Iraqis.
Most of the Shiite majority and the Kurds -- the coalition which controls the government -- support the charter, while most Sunni Arabs sharply opposed a document they fear will tear Iraq to pieces and leave them weak and out of power.
Election officials in many provinces have released their initial counts, indicating that Sunni attempts to defeat the charter failed.
But the commission found that the number of "yes" votes in most provinces appeared "unusually high" and would be audited, with random samples taken from ballot boxes to test them.
In violence yesterday, insurgents shot and killed Ayed Abdul Ghani, an adviser to Osama al-Najafi, Iraq's industry minister and one of the country's top Sunni Arabs.
The shooting occurred in new Baghdad, an eastern section of the capital, as Ghani was driving to work at about 7:45am, said police Maj. Falah Al-Mohammedawi.
Before Iraq's constitutional referendum, al-Najafi had predicted that voters would reject the document because it favors Kurds and majority Shiites.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was