2018-06-12
610 View
+
-
SULAIMANI – Iraqi Prime Minister, Haidar al-Abadi said on Tuesday (June 12) that the burning of the ballot box warehouse in Baghdad was done “deliberately”.
Initial investigation shows that the warehouse where ballots for Iraq’s May 12 parliamentary election stored, set on fire “deliberately,” Abadi said during a press conference in Baghdad.
An Iraqi court issued an arrest warrant for four people on charges of setting fire on the ballot box storage site in Baghdad on Monday (June 11).
Spokesman for Supreme Judicial Council of Iraq, Abdul-Sattar al-Bayraqdar said the arrest warrant had been issued for three policemen and a member of the Independent High Electoral Commission.
A fire broke out on Sunday at one of the warehouses where ballots from Iraq’s national elections were being stored ahead of a full manual recount.
It was the latest setback for a process that had already been mired in accusations of fraud and other violations.
Abadi called on the commander of operations in the Iraqi provinces to take strict security measures outside the ballot box warehouses in the country.
Abadi said the fire was part of a plot to sabotage the country's democratic process.
Iraqi Parliament Speaker Salim al-Jabouri called for a rerun of the parliamentary election held on May 12, just a few hours after the fire breakout.
(NRT)