Manual and electronic vote count match

BAGHDAD, December 19 – The Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) has validated the integrity of the voting process by confirming that the manual count tallies with the electronic count from Tuesday’s election. The IHEC is now set to begin cross-referencing the transmitted data with the information on memory sticks as a next step in ensuring the accuracy of the election results.

Joumana Al-Ghalai, the IHEC spokesperson, said:

At our national office, we are now gathering the memory sticks and the physical documentation of the manual counts. The comparison conducted for the votes from over 35,000 polling stations has shown a complete match with the electronic tallies.

The verification of results sent via the electronic carrier medium against those on the memory sticks will start shortly. Our goal is to ensure a transparent and trustworthy announcement of the preliminary results in today’s press conference at 5:00 PM.