Ankara, April 27: Former Iraqi premier Iyad Allawi said Monday that his bloc would appeal against a judicial panel’s decision to disqualify 52 candidates from last month’s general election.
“We will take action against this dangerous situation,” Allawi told a joint news conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Ankara.
“We have instructed a group of lawyers to object to this decision at the appeals court. I am sure we will be successful,” he said through an interpreter.
A three-member judicial panel set up by the election organisers on Monday disqualified two winning candidates — one from Allawi’s secular Iraqiyya bloc which garnered the most seats — along with 50 others who failed to win seats.
The move presents a further complication to so far inconclusive efforts to set up a new government after the indecisive March 7 vote.
“Frankly, we are very worried about (this decision). The political process is now in the hands of a group of people from the Iraqi judiciary. They pass or reverse decisions to their liking,” Allawi said.
He added that all the groups which were successful in the elections would hold a meeting on Tuesday at his bloc’s call to discuss the panel’s decision.
“We will use the judiciary and political action to eradicate this crisis and to ensure that those who deserve get their rights,” Allawi said.
Iraq has been locked in a political stalemate since the March vote which gave Allawi’s Iraqiyya bloc a narrow lead over the incumbent Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s State of Law Alliance, by 91 seats to 89.
Efforts to form a government were thrown wide open last week when a judicial panel ordered that ballots cast in Baghdad be manually recounted, after Maliki alleged manipulation at polling stations.
With neither Allawi nor Maliki — the main candidates for the premiership — gaining anywhere near the 163 seats necessary to form a government on their own, the weeks since polling day have been dominated by talks with smaller parties, some with close ties to Iran, to build a coalition.
Davutoglu, for his part, urged Iraq’s political actors to expand efforts to set up a “all-embracing government with a high degree of legitimacy” and to make sure that the process is “transparent”.
“We are ready to assist if help is needed, but the final decision (on the new government) belongs to the Iraqis,” he said.
—Agencies