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.



Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Meets HTS Leader in Damascus

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Ministry headquarters in the Turkish capital Ankara Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP)
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Ministry headquarters in the Turkish capital Ankara Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP)
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Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Meets HTS Leader in Damascus

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Ministry headquarters in the Turkish capital Ankara Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP)
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Ministry headquarters in the Turkish capital Ankara Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP)

Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met with Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus on Sunday, Türkiye’s foreign ministry said, without providing further details.

Photographs and footage shared by the ministry showed Fidan and Sharaa, leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, which led the operation to topple Bashar al-Assad two weeks ago, walking ahead of a crowded delegation before posing for photographs.

The two are also seen shaking hands, hugging, and smiling.

On Friday, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said that Türkiye would help Syria's new administration form a state structure and draft a new constitution, adding Fidan would head to Damascus to discuss this new structure, without providing a date.

Ibrahim Kalin, the head of Türkiye’s MIT intelligence agency, also visited Damascus on Dec. 12, four days after Assad's fall.

Ankara had for years backed opposition fighters looking to oust Assad and welcomed the end of his family's brutal five-decade rule after a 13-year civil war. Türkiye also hosts millions of Syrian migrants it hopes will start returning home after Assad's fall, and has vowed to help rebuild Syria.

Fidan's visit comes amid fighting in northeast Syria between Türkiye-backed Syrian fighters and the Kurdish YPG militia, which spearheads the US-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the northeast and Ankara regards as a terrorist organization.

Earlier, Türkiye’s defense minister said Ankara believed that Syria's new leadership, including the Syrian National Army (SNA) armed group which Ankara backs, will drive YPG fighters from all territory they occupy in the northeast.

Ankara, alongside Syrian allies, has mounted several cross-border offensives against the Kurdish faction in northern Syria and controls swathes of Syrian territory along the border, while repeatedly demanding that its NATO ally Washington halts support for the Kurdish fighters.

The SDF has been on the back foot since Assad's fall, with the threat of advances from Ankara and Türkiye-backed groups as it looks to preserve political gains made in the last 13 years, and with Syria's new rulers being friendly to Ankara.