Sunnis protest vote count in Ninawa

MOSUL, Iraq, Feb. 20 (UPI) -- Candidates with the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party in Ninawa complained Friday that the official election results in the northern province did not match their count.

Yehya Abd Mahjoub with the IIP said the official vote tally as announced Thursday by the Independent High Electoral Commission of Iraq was not representative of their take in Ninawa, the Voices of Iraq news agency reports.

"The seats which the Iraqi Islamic Party list won do not represent our real share," he said, adding that his party would cooperate regardless in order to provide the best possible service to the people of Iraq.

The IIP, the party of Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, took just three of the 37 provincial council seats. The Sunni al-Hadbaa list took the most with 19, followed by a Kurdish slate with 12 seats in Ninawa.

Meanwhile, lawmakers with the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance slate said Friday the Iraqi Parliament postponed electing a speaker until the next session.

Iraq has been without a parliamentary speaker since December. Lawmakers in a runoff Thursday fell just short of the necessary votes needed to elect Iyad al-Samarrai with the Iraqi Accordance Front for the post.

The delay in electing a new speaker has stalled the Iraqi Parliament, leaving it unable to pass a series of measures. Hassan al-Sanied with the UIA said, however, that lawmakers would move on the national budget soon.

"We will discuss the general budget in the coming few days before the Parliament's recess," he said.