Partial vote recount begins in Iraq's Kirkuk

A partial recount of Iraq's May parliamentary vote began Tuesday in the multi-ethnic city of Kirkuk, capital of the eponymous oil-rich province where turnout for the poll was the strongest. "The counting process first started in Kirkuk because that is where there was the greatest number of disputes," electoral commission member Imad Jamil told AFP.
A team of about 30 commission staff began counting ballots in 500 boxes, 186 of which were not included in the first count, Jamil said, without elaborating. Baghdad sent military reinforcements to the area on Monday, and on Tuesday counter-terrorism units set up a security cordon around the building where ballots were being manually recounted.
Journalists with the official Iraqiya channel were the only members of the press allowed into building. Iraq's supreme court ordered a manual vote recount in polling stations where results from the May 12 legislative poll were contested following allegations of fraud.