Disputes over election results threaten conflict in Iraq's Kirkuk
Kirkuk has witnessed major political and security tensions since the elections on May 12, which may cause an ethnic crisis between Arabs, Kurds and Turkmens.
On May 30, the Independent High Electoral Commission of Iraq annulled votes cast at more than 1,000 of the country’s polling stations, including 186 stations in Kirkuk, a city that has faced political unrest among its three social components — Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen — since the elections on May 12.
On the same day, Jan Kubis, the head of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq, talked during a meeting of the United Nations Security Council in New York, where he noted reports of electoral fraud and said that Kirkuk was "one of several hotspots" of tension over the election results, adding that the situation there continues to be “volatile.”
Hundreds of members of the Iraqi Turkmen Front in Kirkuk have staged a sit-in surrounding the warehouses where the governorate ballot boxes are being kept. This has prevented the electoral commission staff from retrieving the ballot boxes despite being accompanied by a counterterrorism force.
According to statements from the commission, the boxes from some polling stations in Kirkuk remain in the warehouses and have not been transferred to the Iraqi capital because of the sit-in, which is headed by parliamentarian Arshad Salhi. “There are armed men among the protesters near the warehouses,” the electoral commission's statement said.
