"A commission spokesman said many are "exaggerated," but ." ... YEAH... BUT

Iraqi Parties Complain of
Vote Irregularities

By Doug Struck
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, December 18, 2005; Page A28

---Note the page they put this on...A28... They just never change, do they?---

BAGHDAD, Dec. 17 -- As the United States portrayed Thursday's Iraqi elections as a resounding success, political parties here Saturday complained of violations ranging from dead men voting to murder in the streets.

The Iraqi electoral commission said it had received more than 200 complaints in advance of a Sunday deadline for filing grievances. A commission spokesman said many are "exaggerated," but political parties from all corners maintained that violence and fraud made the outcome suspect.

"We have documented violations, threats and breaches," Mehdi Hafedh, an official of the secular party of former prime minister Ayad Allawi, said at a news conference. At almost the same time, the coalition of Shiite religious parties that is vying to retain its majority in parliament warned that it "would not accept" results it deems fraudulent.

U.S. officials speaking from Washington declared the elections clean and fair, and in Iraq, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said in a statement that "all reports indicate that Iraqis from all communities and regions turned out in large numbers with only limited reports of violence and irregularities."

The electoral commission also fielded a large number of complaints after parliamentary elections last January but ultimately ruled that none of the violations was sufficient to have affected the outcome.

Continues, ad naseum... Link here


--FREEDOM....??

WHAT FREEDOM....??--