Iraqi Turkmen leader calls for election result recount

ERBIL, IRAQ - MAY 16: Marouf Aydin, an Erbil-based parliamentarian for the Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITF), holds a press conference at ITF headquarters in Erbil on May 16, 2018. An Iraqi Turkmen politician said Wednesday that last week’s parliamentary poll had been rigged and requested a manual recount. Marouf Aydin, an Erbil-based parliamentarian for the Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITF), complained of voting “irregularities” in northern Iraq’s Kurdish region -- and in Kirkuk -- during Saturday’s general election. Voicing his “total rejection” of the poll results, Marouf said that the ITF had appealed to Iraq’s official electoral commission for a manual recount. “The preliminary [poll] results do not reflect the true will of the Turkmen,” he asserted. “We will take any legal steps necessary to safeguard our rights.” According to preliminary poll results, the ITF clinched about 75,000 votes in Kirkuk and 2,500 in Erbil. Last Saturday, Iraqis voted in the country's first parliamentary poll since 2014. (Footage by Hamit Arslan/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)