Shafaq News/ The Iraqi Prime Minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, had informed the head of al-Wataniya bloc, Ayad Allawi, that the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) are easy to hack, members of al-Wataniya bloc revealed on Wednesday, demanding a manual recount of the ballots pursuant to the Parliament code.
"By reviewing the records, we noticed repeated results and different closing times between different EVMs," leading member of al-Wataniya bloc, Kadhem al-Shammari, said, "the EVMs are supposed to close automatically in all the centers at the same time."
Al-Shammari said that his bloc filed complaints at the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) against some candidates for practicing "electoral campaigning inside the ballot centers."
"We also did not receive a copy of the special polls," he added.
"We, al-Wataniya bloc, demand IHEC to reveal the cause of the difference in the closure timing between the EVMs. We also demand comparing the fingerprints with the Election IDs. IHEC shall also hand us the results of the special voting polls."
Al-Shammari called for manually recounting and resorting all the EVMs in accordance with Article 38 of the Council of Representatives code that stipulates recounting the ballots of every center or EVM with suspected results.
"Scrutinizing the list of the candidates and the votes they won, we noticed that exactly the same number of votes was registered in different EVMs. This confirms that the results are meddled."
For her part, Sara Ayad Allawi said during the conference, "PM al-Kadhimi informed by himself after the 2018 election that a technician was able to hack an EVM in less than five minutes."
