The Iraqi Independent High Election Commission (IHEC) announced the official results of the October 10 general elections in a press conference on Tuesday.
Five seats in total were affected after the manual recount of hundreds of ballot boxes.
The five seats are from the provinces of Baghdad, Nineveh, Erbil, Basra, and Kirkuk, according to the chairman of IHEC Board of Commissioners, Judge Jalil Adnan Khalaf.
“We’d like to underline here that the commission has been committed in dealing with the results according to the law and in line with the will of the Iraqi people” he said in the presser. Adnan described the election process as “credible, fair, and transparent” and praised the “professional” conduct of IHEC during the elections.
According to official results, the Sadrist bloc headed by Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr maintained the top spot by securing 73 seats out of 329. The Fatah Alliance saw its seat count increase by two and ended up with 17 seats. The Kurdistan Alliance, made up of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Change Movement, also increased its seats from 15 to 17.
The Taqaddum bloc headed by Sunni leader and current Speaker of Parliament Mohamed al-Halbousi won 37 seats and secured the second spot. State of Law bloc led by former PM Nouri al-Maliki came out with 33 seats, placing third.
Soon after preliminary results were announced, all Shia factions excluding Sadrists contested the results and claimed fraudulence.
The results are still pending ratification from the Supreme Federal Court. IHEC is set to submit the official results to the supreme court on Wednesday.
