Fatah Alliance Calls for Annulment of Iraq Elections Results

Fatah Alliance leader Hadi al-Amiri during the press conference in Baghdad (AFP)
Fatah Alliance leader Hadi al-Amiri during the press conference in Baghdad (AFP)
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Fatah Alliance Calls for Annulment of Iraq Elections Results

Fatah Alliance leader Hadi al-Amiri during the press conference in Baghdad (AFP)
Fatah Alliance leader Hadi al-Amiri during the press conference in Baghdad (AFP)

Fatah Alliance leader Hadi al-Amiri accused the Iraqi Electoral Commission of several legal and technical violations, describing it as "incompetent."

Amiri asserted that the Alliance would follow legal measures and not resort to escalation through protests and demonstrations.

Some Baghdad political observers expect the coordinating framework groups to return to protests to impose their conditions.

The final results of the Electoral Commission showed that Fatah won 17 seats, compared to 48 seats in the previous parliamentary session.

Fatah based its arguments on an old report that claimed the voting machines of the German firm, Hensoldt, were not adequate. Hensoldt was tasked with auditing the devices and software used to count and compile votes of the 2018 elections.

"The election results proved the incompetence of the [electoral] commission to manage it [the vote]," Amiri a press conference.

He indicated the Alliance had doubts about these devices from the beginning, saying the Commission did not submit any report on the elections until the dissolution of the parliament, and this is a legal violation.

The Commission should have handed over the results to all the candidates, but it did not abide by this, said Amiri, adding there is a vast difference in votes handed over to the candidates and the announced results.

The Alliance submitted appeals to the Federal Court with evidence of forgery, and it has six reports on the Commission's violations of the law.

During a press conference, lawmaker Adnan Faihan, a member of Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq, said that the German company confirmed there were issues in reading voters' fingerprints.

Last week, the Electoral Commission responded to reports about the German company, stressing that there was no election fraud and judicial verdicts are decisive and binding to all.

Member of its media team, Imad Jamil, said that claims about the company were observations reported before the elections.

Jamil explained that the company was brought to the counting center and examined the devices and spare parts, and the producing Korean company processed them.

He stressed that the Commission did not conceal the report of the German company, which indicated that the procedures for opening, closing, transferring, and other related procedures were done correctly.

Jamil also indicated that the Commission responded to several voting issues promptly, and the electoral system's problems did not impact the results.

The company pointed in its report that the Commission addressed quickly and effectively all problems, which allowed the verification of data inputs and outputs on multiple levels, Jamil noted, stressing that no foreign party attempted at any time to influence the review or interfere with it.



Israeli Military Raids Jenin in West Bank, Four Palestinians Reported Killed 

A child walks past a burnt vehicle in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Jenin on January 17, 2025. (AFP)
A child walks past a burnt vehicle in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Jenin on January 17, 2025. (AFP)
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Israeli Military Raids Jenin in West Bank, Four Palestinians Reported Killed 

A child walks past a burnt vehicle in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Jenin on January 17, 2025. (AFP)
A child walks past a burnt vehicle in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Jenin on January 17, 2025. (AFP)

Israeli security forces launched an operation in the volatile West Bank city of Jenin, killing at least four Palestinians, officials said on Tuesday.
Four Palestinians have been killed and around 35 injured in Israel's military offensive on Jenin, said the health ministry.

The military said soldiers, police and intelligence services had begun a counter-terrorism action in the city, giving no further details.

Prior to the Israeli action, Palestinian security forces had been conducting a weeks-long operation to reassert control in the city and the adjacent refugee camp, a major center of armed groups in the occupied West Bank.

Palestinian health services said at least four Palestinians were killed and 35 wounded as the Israeli raid began in Jenin, where an Israeli air strike last week in the refugee camp killed at least three Palestinians and wounded scores more.

The move into Jenin, where the Israeli army has carried out multiple raids and large-scale incursions over recent years, comes only days after the start of a ceasefire in Gaza and underscores the threat of more violence in the West Bank.

Late on Monday, bands of Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians, smashing cars and burning property, just as newly installed US President Donald Trump announced he was lifting sanctions on violent settlers.

The attack near the village of al-Funduq, in an area where three Israelis were killed in a shooting earlier this month, was the latest in a long sequence of incidents that have accelerated strongly since the start of the war in Gaza.

The military said it had opened an investigation into the incident, which it said involved dozens of Israeli civilians, some in masks.