Iraq to audit 'unusually high' referendum results

[Newsjock]

http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=40e48601-19cb-4790-a61f-579eb313c4df

Canadian Press

BAGHDAD -- Iraq's electoral commission said Monday it intended to audit "unusually high" numbers in results coming from most provinces in Saturday's landmark referendum on the draft constitution.

The commission's statement came after Sunni Arab legislator, Meshaan al-Jubouri, claimed fraud had occurred in the vote, including instances of voting in hotly contested regions Saturday by pro-constitution Shiites from other areas. His comments echoed those from other Sunni officials over the weekend.

"Statements coming from most governorates indicating such high numbers that require us to recheck, compare and audit them, as they are unusually high according to the international standards," the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq said in a statement.

more

[daleo]

1. Of course there has been fraud

How could it be otherwise, in a country controlled by a foreign military dictatorship?

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[LynnTheDem]

5. Gee, do you think the fact that most Iraqis NEVER READ the

"constitution" before they had to vote on it coz there was too much violence to distribute copies of the "constitution" ISN'T fraud?

[Teaser]

6. You are either joking

or a joke. Which is it?

[murray hill farm]

7. it is the high numbers of voters that is the problem.

In the USA, about half of those who can vote do vote...and for this one half who can and do vote, it is safe to go out and vote...long lines maybe..that is the greatest sacrifice we have to make in order to vote...and still only half our population votes. If you had to also risk your life and the lives of your family to vote....then it is of course suspect when the number of voters is so high.

[Richard Steele]

9. So, the HIGH numbers prove that the high numbers aren't fake?

QUOTE:
"If the iraqi people thought there was so much fraud,
they would not be voting in the numbers they are."

With logic like yours, who needs facts?
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[greygandalf]

13. Did they inflate numbers in the US in 2004?

just curious

When we refer to a rigging of 2004 I was under the impression it was a shifting of votes, not an actual increase in voters in fraudulent way.

[Zenlitened]

16. .

[Zenlitened]

10. Yes, if people find out today that there was fraud...

... they would refuse to vote yesterday.

Check.

:spray:

[underpants]

2. Audit the unusually high number of insurgents while you are at it

something tells me that this won't make any difference to them anyway.

[meganmonkey]

4. I guess we are exporting all sorts of wonderful deMOCKratic things

to Iraq :(

[allemand]

8. Juan Cole about possible fraud in Ninevah Province:

Al-Hayat reports that 643,000 votes were cast in Ninevah Province (capital: Mosul). At the time it filed, 419,000 had been preliminarily counted, and the vote was running 75 percent in favor. Ninevah Province was the most likely place that Sunni Arabs opposing the constitution might be able to get a 2/3s "no" vote.

Several of my knowledgeable readers are convinced that the Ninevah voting results as reported so far look like fraud. One suspected that the Iraqi government so feared a defeat there that they over-did the ballot stuffing and ended up with an implausible result.

One of my Iraqi-American correspondents compared the turnout statistics from Ninevah and Diyala provinces last Jan. 30 to those coming out now, and found the current numbers completely unbelievable. He pointed out that the Iraqi Islamic Party had not garnered many votes in Ninevah last January, and its support of the constitution could not hope to explain the hundreds of thousands of "yes" votes the constitution appeared to receive on Saturday.

http://www.juancole.com/2005/10/peace-in-iraq-still-elusive-after.html

These results from Ninevah make no sense to me. Mosul is a city of over a million, and is 80 percent Sunni Arab. There are certainly more than 80,000 Sunni "no" votes there! I suppose it is possible that tens of thousands of Sunni Arab supporters of the Iraqi Islamic Party, which is based in Mosul, voted "yes," in accordance with the instructions of their party leaders. But I wouldn't have thought there were that many IIP loyalists in Ninevah, where there are many ex-Baathists and Sunni Arab nationalists.

http://www.juancole.com/2005/10/constitution-likely-to-pass-6-us.html

[kostya]

11. Regardless of fraud or not, it won't effect the ensuing civil war.

And who is doing the auditing? Shiites?
:banghead:

[McKenzie]

12. self delete - cheap comment

[acmavm]

14. Looks like whoever cooked these books went to the George W. bush**

School of Blatant Incompetence.

[allemand]

15. CNN: recount possible in Mosul, more votes than voters

Christiane Amanpour
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5083442