(AINA) -- In a strongly worded statement, the Al-Rafidayn Democratic Coalition, the main party representing the Christian ChaldoAssyrians, rejected the Iraqi Independent Electoral High Commission's report on voting irregularities and lockouts in North Iraq. The statement specifically criticized the Commission's white-washing of the incident and blasted the decision to open only 93 of the 330 voting centers in the Nineveh governorate on election day.

The following is the full statement from the Al-Rafidayn Democratic Coalition.

The High Independent Elections Committee issued bulletin No 15 on February 07th, 2005, we would like to explain the following:

1 - In the beginning of its bulletin the commission declares that the National Assembly Elections in the Nineveh governorate as well as the governorate council elections were held in a positive atmosphere with a considerable public participation. We say if this was the case then why were more than 200,000 voters from allover the governorate denied their voting rights? 2 - The commission admits that it had reduced the number of polling centers in the governorate from 330 to 93 centers, with 43 being in the city of Mosul and 40 outside including those in al-Hamadaniya, Qaraqosh, Baa'chiqa, Sinjar, Shikhan, Karmelis, Bahzani, and Bartilla etc…

The mere admission on the part of the commission in reducing the polling centers to 93 -- that is it annulled 237 centers -- is an indirect admission to the commission's miserable failure in accomplishing its responsibilities, no matter what the excuses are, in providing all that was necessary to hold these elections; then it claims that it had opened centers in Qaraqosh and Bartilla etc.

There were 150 employees of the Qaraqosh inhabitants working for the commission but it didn't open any polling centers in the aforementioned city as it didn't open any polling centers in Karmelis or Bartilla; how then can the commission asks if 40 centers are enough to cover all of the Nineveh governorate (excluding city center) to accommodate hundreds of thousands of voters?

The High Commission's bulletin is full of errors, double meanings, and distorted facts in an attempt to elude its responsibility in its miserable failure to execute its duty by providing the simplest election materials for hundreds of thousands of voters in the towns of the Nineveh Plain.

We reject the commission's investigation results into the subject, its "regret" for the invincible difficulties which prevented a significant number etc.; this isn't a remedy to this huge problem. Therefore, we are demanding that an independent committee on a prominent level be formed to hold its investigation into the subject, reveal all its implications and restore that which is right in service for Iraq's future.

2-7-2005
The Information Bureau
Al-Rafidayn Democratic Coalition