Thousands in Baghdad protest Iraq election ‘fraud’ News
Thousands in Baghdad protest Iraq election ‘fraud’

[JURIST] Over 10,000 Iraqis took to the streets of Baghdad Tuesday to protest alleged fraud in the December 15 parliamentary elections in Iraq [JURIST report]. Complaints of fraud surfaced almost immediately after the polls closed [JURIST report], with the majority of allegations coming from a group that lead Tuesday's demonstrations, the Maram (in Arabic, "goal") alliance, a coalition of Sunni Arab and Shiite secular groups who contend that Shiite-based religious groups "rigged polls" to gain power. Maram members are demanding that officials vacate the election results and establish a coalition government with an adequate balance of power among groups. Preliminary poll results [IECI text, PDF] show that the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance has won a large majority of the votes. This is the second major demonstration against the election results in a week; on Friday, some 20,000 demonstrators marched in west Baghdad . BBC News has more. From Baghdad, the author of the Iraq the Model weblog offers local coverage.

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