Baghdad: The front-runner in Iraq's recent parliamentary elections yesterday called for the formation of an impartial caretaker government to counter what he says are efforts to change the vote results and prevent the country from sliding into violence.
Former Prime Minister Eyad Allawi, a secular Shiite whose cross-sectarian coalition narrowly won most votes in the March 7 polling, said that disqualifying candidates and holding recounts is a violation of the people's vote and an attempt to "steal the will of the Iraqi people."
The call comes after an Iraqi court charged with investigating election-related complaints disqualified one of his candidates, over alleged ties to the former regime.
The court's ruling came at the urging of a commission charged with investigating politicians' connections with Saddam Hussain's regime. The commission is also asking that several other candidates lose their seats. The court is expected to rule on those in the coming days.
Disqualifying Allawi's candidates would favour incumbent Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki's bloc, which came in second-placed in the elections.
"Certainly what is going on is a theft of the Iraqi will and democracy, jeopardizing the safety of the country," Allawi said in an interview yesterday morning on the Iraqi Al Sharqiya satellite channel. "We will call for the forming of a new interim government."
"Regretfully, the issue has reached a level where we can't keep silent," he said, citing efforts to disqualify his candidates and recount ballots. He also expressed concern over who was guarding the ballot boxes.
The narrow victory of Allawi's Iraqiya coalition, which was heavily backed by Iraq's Sunni minority, was immediately assailed by Al Maliki, whose coalition garnered just two seats less.
