Iraq Results Raising Questions

In an effort to make sure that the results are seen as valid, the Independent Election Commission of Iraq is going to recheck, compare and audit some of the results. What is wrong with these results?

Iraqi election officials said they were investigating "unusually high" vote totals in 12 Shiite and Kurdish provinces, where as many 99 per cent of the voters were reported to have cast ballots in favour of Iraq's new constitution

But others have also raised questions about the results where the vote was closer.

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.