Auditing results of Iraqi referendum

The independent higher commission for the elections in Iraq started the auditing of operations and results of the referendum due to unusually high rate of approval for the referendum on the constitution, according to one official in the committee.

The official who asked to be anonymous said that the percentage of appeals in the referendum reached 20 to 30, ruling not the assumption of technical error or falsification.

He explained that the majority of the preliminary results, which were transferred to the headquarters of the commission, and raised controversy were in the Shiite governorates in the south and the Kurdish ones in the north the referendum approval figures are very high, noting that the commission will "audit manually the computer results."

One official at the higher commission said on Monday that the rate of support for the constitution reached more than 90% in the governorates of Karbala, al-Basra, Meisan, Zee Qar, al-Najaf and Waset. But he also added that the commission will spare no efforts and take due time to have the announced results in a timely fashion," adding that the anyone who committed falsifications will be brought before the judiciary.

For his part, the spokesman for the commission Fred Ayar said that the figures which are under controversy are for the percentage for voters yes or no and does not pertains to the rate of voter participation.

The commission announced in a statement the postponement of announcing final results of the referendum. It said it needs several days to review the lists coming from most of the governorates after showing relatively high figures in comparison with typical international voting results.