International group finds fraud marred Iraqi elections

Numerous violations and reports of fraud marred Iraq’s December 15 elections, an international assessment team said in a report released today.

Some of Iraq’s 220,000 election workers were among those blamed for violating their code of conduct with “questionable or illegal practices,” said the report from the International Mission for Iraqi Elections, a 10-nation monitoring body led by Canada.

Election officials received around 2,000 complaints that alleged ballot box stuffing and theft, tally sheet tampering, intimidation, violence, incorrect voter lists, ballot shortages, multiple voting, improper police and military conduct, campaigning within polling centres and violations of a pre-election ban on campaigning.

The report also said some Iraqi security forces voted on election day after voting previously on an earlier day set aside for them.

Despite the problems, the mission said Iraqis should be commended for an election that operated smoothly under harsh circumstances.

“Despite these conditions, the people of Iraq have voted in numbers that would do credit to democracies in more settled parts of the world,” the report stated.