Iraq's Electoral Commission annulled results from 227 ballot boxes today, upholding complaints of irregularities in the December 15 election, but said this would have little effect on results already announced.Final results—based on tallies from some 31,000 ballot boxes—would be published on Friday, said Electoral Commissioner Adel al-Lamy, adding these would be in line with partial, provisional counts given some weeks ago.‘‘We have annulled 227 ballot boxes which did not comply with international standards; they had been tampered with. But this will have no effect on the results,’’ Lamy said.‘‘Final results will be announced on Friday,’’ he added, noting that political parties would have two days after that to lodge protests before the results can be certified as definitive. Irregularities were found across the country, Lamy said.Sunni Arab and secular parties complained of massive fraud in the election but Sunni leaders have already begun discussing joining a coalition government with the Shi’ite Islamists and the Kurdish bloc.A four-strong team of international experts was brought in to review the election process; the team has said it will publish its findings on Thursday.The organisation to which the experts belong has, like the UN, already said the vote was largely fair.Near final tallies of seat allocations, show that the Shi’ite Alliance will fall about nine seats short of the absolute majority it had in the 275-member interim Assembly, which was boycotted by the main Sunni groups.
