Allawi: voters' turnout in the October 10 election was less than 20%

Shafaq News/ The Iraqi Civil Front, led by Iraq's former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, cast doubts about the voters' turnout in the polls for the parliamentary election, calling the President and the Supreme Federal Court to refrain from ratifying the results.

In a joint press conference with Allawi, deputy head of the Iraqi Civil Front Nadeem al-Jaberi, said, "we warned earlier of holding the election without laying down a conducive environment..we decided then to boycott the election and anticipated a consequent strife and distortion of the voters will."

"Ahead of the results announcement, we released a statement announcing reservations regarding the voters' turnout," he added, "it was less than 20%, and it ignored millions of Iraqis outside the country."

"The voters' turnout, according to our estimates, ranges between 12 to 19%; enough to de-legitimate the election."

Al-Jaberi demanded the Iraqi President and the Chief of the Supreme Federal Court to refrain from ratifying the results of the polls because it was less than 50%, calling on the Lawyer's Bar Association to voice their position from the announced results and voters turnout.

"To avoid internal conflict, we call on the Iraqi politicians to participate in a comprehensive dialogue."

The leader of the Front, Ayad Allawi, said, "we did not run for the election for several reasons; financial and administrative corruption and external interference were a few of many."

"A national conference shall be held to contain the issues that might emerge from this election. We are on the verge of conflict. Some parties are threatening other parties."

"Differences between Erbil and Baghdad are yet to be solved. This might rip through Iraq," he added, "a minority that participated in the polls, cannot decide the fate of the majority that boycotted."