INDEPENDENT POLITICIAN MITHAL AL-ALUSI CLAIMS IECI

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAGHDAD 005149 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/28/2015 TAGS: PGOV KDEM PNAT IZ SUBJECT: INDEPENDENT POLITICIAN MITHAL AL-ALUSI CLAIMS IECI CORRUPTION Classified By: Political Counselor Robert Ford for reasons 1.4(b) and (d) ¶1. (C) Summary: Mithal al-Alusi, an Independent Sunni Arab and founder of the Iraqi Nation Party, claimed December 27 that the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq (IECI) is attempting to alter seat allocation in the new Council of Representatives by counting ballots the IECI's own investigate commission deemed fraudulent. Alusi said two of the IECI commissioners have forced the counting of these ballots. Alusi stands to lose a seat if the vote count alters dramatically. End Summary. -------------- I AM BEING ROBBED OF MY SEAT -------------- ¶2. (C) Mithal al-Alusi, former De-Ba'athification Committee Chairman and founder of the Iraqi Nation Party, told PolOff December 27 that Adel Alami, IECI's Chief Operating Officer, told him on December 27, "I have evidence of fraud and forgery, but I can't expose this because it would make big trouble for me and change who gets seats in the new government." NOTE: Allami is known to make broad, off-the-cuff statements, unsupported by concrete evidence. END NOTE. ¶3. (C) Based on preliminary results, Mithal al-Alusi is currently projected to win one seat, at most in Baghdad, for the new Council of Representatives. The IECI chose not to count 45 ballot boxes from Baghdad during the preliminary results due to fraud allegations. The IECI audited the votes in these boxes December 27, and IECI staff will prepare a report. According to Alusi, IECI staff is "under pressure" from Commissioners Aida Salhey and Su'ad al-Jubouri to count these ballots in an effort to keep him from gaining a seat. Mithal said these ballots would benefit Salih Mutlak's National Dialogue (667) and the Iraqi National Common Council (784),allegedly a Sunni group. -------------- IECI AWAITING AUDIT REPORT BEFORE DECIDING -------------- ¶4. (C) If found "not fraudulent," and if counted towards the official results, these votes would total approximately 22,000. NOTE: This is enough to re-distribute one or two seats in Baghdad, but only if these votes are skewed to one party. However, this should not occur. Normally, one would expect the same distribution of votes of the total to be represented in these boxes. END NOTE. ¶5. (C) The UN indicated the votes in question would not affect the results by even one seat. The audits of these boxes showed some indications of tampering in some of the boxes, but not all. The IECI Board is awaiting a final report from the audit team and will decide whether they will include these boxes or not in the total count. -------------- COMMENT -------------- ¶6. (C) In a separate conversation December 27, Secretary General of the Assyrian Democratic Movement Yonadem Kuna also mentioned to PolOffs that these 45 ballot boxes would benefit the Iraqi National Common Council (784). He, too, was concerned the counting of these ballots might cost al- Rafidain its seat in Baghdad. On the other hand, the IECI said the complaint against these ballots implicated Shi'a leader Abd al-Aziz al Hakim's United Iraqi Alliance. ¶7. (C) Comment: Finger-pointing and complaints of elections abuse continue on all sides. The IECI should show that their auditing process is valid and transparent to ensure Iraqis - especially the many disheartened Sunni Arabs who cannot adjust to the fact that they are not the majority sect in Iraq. KHALILZAD