IHEC Spokesperson: Manual & Electronic Counting of Votes were Identical

PUKMEDIA

IHEC Spokesperson Jumana al-Ghalai.

The spokesperson for the Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) affirmed that the manually recounted and sorted votes of polling stations of the Kurdistan parliamentary elections yielded results consistent with the electronic counting.

The IHEC declared the preliminary results of the elections for the sixth term of the Kurdistan Parliament on October 21, 2024, excluding the results from 26 polling stations due to either the non-submission of results to the National Centre in Baghdad or differences exceeding 5% between manual and electronic counting of their votes. The distribution of these stations across the governorates was as follows: 13 in Erbil, 6 in Sulaymaniyah, and 7 in Duhok.

IHEC Spokesperson Jumana al-Ghalai told PUKMEDIA: "The manual counting and sorting method was conducted for the votes of 26 polling stations that were sent to the audit centres in the governorates of Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, and Duhok, with results aligning with the protocols specified by the IHEC."

She added: "The votes in these stations were recounted and sorted manually due to the failure of some devices to transmit results to the national centre in Baghdad post-voting, and in other instances, the difference between manual and electronic counting exceeded 5%." 

She also noted that "the process took place in the presence of representatives from political parties, local and international observers, and the media, ensuring that the results aligned with the commission's procedures."

After six years, the general and special voting of the elections for the sixth term of the Kurdistan Parliament took place, where the special voting of security services took place on October 18, 2024, and general voting took place on October 20, 2024. 

The IHEC registered 189 complaints in both the general and special voting of the sixth term of the Kurdistan parliamentary elections.



PUKMEDIA