Probably ballot stuffing, not count alteration
Six Shiite-dominated provinces in southern Iraq have voted by more than 90 pct to approve the country's draft constitution, according to initial figures provided today by the independent electoral commission.
But two largely Sunni provinces had voted against, although one was by less than a key two-thirds majority, commission spokesman Farid Ayyar said.
[link|http://www9.sbs.com.au/theworldnews/region.php?id=123255®ion=6|SBS World News Australia]
Iraqi officials have delayed the announcement of results from Saturday's referendum on the country's new constitution because some of the ballots had to be verified.
The Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq said it needed several more days \ufffdto complete this difficult and complex operation after finding that the figures from most provinces were too high," apparently referring to turnout levels.
"This will require re-examination, comparison and verification because they are comparatively high compared with international averages for elections," it said.
The Independent Electorial Commission is a UN setup organization, and appears to actually be fairly independent. Thus I doubt any real fraud on their parts, but ballot stuffing at the local seems the most likely conclusion from the IEC's comments.
Given the totals so far, it seems forgone that the constitution will get more then 50% of the vote, but it may fail the 2/3 no vote in 3 region test.
In any case, the whole election seems to be a bit of a show in the end. Last second negotiations came to the conclusion that several key issues in the constitution would be resolved after the vote. Rendering the entire process more of a public support issue then approval of the consititution. And opens the entire process for abuse on a grand scale.
Jay