Following Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court endorsement on Thursday for a manual recount of all ballots from last month’s national elections, Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr who heads the Sairoon alliance which won the recent Iraqi parliamentary elections, called on all Iraqis to show self-restraint and comply with the law, even if they are unconvinced by the decision of the Federal Court.

Sadr also called on the Supreme Judicial Council to abide by neutrality in the manual recount and set a short time frame for that, calling upon the government not to expand its powers in case the recount did not finish at the time of dissolving the parliament which ends on first July, leading Iraq to a state of political vaccum.

He expressed his fears that the recount will be a prelude to a re-election, describing it as a death for democracy in Iraq.

Sadr said that manual recounting means that the electoral process will end up in the hands of those who are corrupt and pitching to be in power and the Iraqi people must be aware of that.

The head of Sairoon alliance called upon the security forces not to be affected by political decisions and to be cautious regarding the situation, because the danger still exists.

Source: english.alarabiya.net