Iraqi Voting Found to Be Flawed but Mostly Fair

by ROBERT F. WORTH

Baghdad, Iraq, Jan.19.- Experts who were asked to investigate allegations of fraud in Iraq's elections in December released a positive report on Thursday, concluding that the vote was flawed but declining to endorse calls for new elections.
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The report, by the International Mission for Iraqi Elections, a monitoring group based in Jordan, noted that some vote-rigging had been documented, and added that "some additional fraud in all probability went undetected, although its exact extent is impossible to determine under current circumstances." But the panel generally praised the election as an impressive exercise of democracy under difficult conditions.

... early returns have suggested that the main Shiite political alliance dominated the vote, as it did in last January's elections.  If the preliminary results confirm or deepen that trend, some Sunni insurgents are likely to respond violently.

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