BAGHDAD, Jan. 22 (Xinhuanet) -- An influential Sunni Arab political body refuted on Sunday the final uncertified election results and planned to hold talks with other political parties to take part in the upcoming government.
"As the Iraqi Consensus Front refutes the election results, it confirms that the elections dossier will remain opened," Zafer al-Ani, spokesman of the Sunni front said in a statement in a news conference in Baghdad.
He said the front will continue its political efforts to regain its seats that were lost "unlawfully".
The Sunni political body has appealed to the Iraqi Federal Court, saying that the Sunnis should have received 11 more parliamentary seats to be added to their 44 seats awarded after the election results, said Tariq al-Hashimi, head of the Iraqi Islamic Party and member of the Sunni front.
However, the front's statement said despite the front's stand of refuting the election results, "it does not want to spoil the ongoing political process," the statement said.
"Therefore, the front will treat with the results as a fact and then it will actively hold talks with other political parties to form a national consensus government."
"The front has no veto on any political party, but there are red lines on some persons in the current government, whom were proved they systematically participated in human rights violations, " Hashimi said, adding that "we will not let them back again."
Hashimi's comments came in an apparent referral to current Interior Minister Bayan Jabr Solagh, who was accused by the Sunni community of playing a major role in killing Sunni clerics.
Jabr, who is a top member of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), has denied any involvement in killing Sunnis.
All main Iraqi political parties have complained about the results. The Shiite religious alliance, which won 128 seats out of the 275-seat parliament, said they should have won six to nine more seats, and the Kurdish coalition, garnering 53 seats, also believed they deserved four more seats.
Sunni and secular political parties claimed a wide-range electoral fraud after the Iraqi election commission announced the election results which gave the ruling Shiites most of votes in Baghdad and Shiite-dominated provinces. Enditem |