Iraqis Probe Possible Vote Rigging

This is SO not going to help -

Iraq's election commission announced Monday that officials were investigating "unusually high" numbers of "yes" votes in about a dozen provinces during Iraq's landmark referendum on a new constitution, raising questions about irregularities in the balloting.

Word of the review came as Sunni Arab leaders repeated accusations of fraud after initial reports from the provinces suggested the constitution had passed. Among the Sunni allegations are that police took ballot boxes from heavily "no" districts, and that some "yes" areas had more votes than registered voters.

In some Kurdish and Shia areas the "yes" vote has been 97 or 98% while in other areas the vote seems too highly "yes" compared with original estimates.

A prominent Sunni Arab politician, Saleh al-Mutlaq, claimed Diyala in particular had seen vote rigging. He said he was told by the manager of a polling station in a Kurdish district of Diyala that 39,000 votes were cast although only 36,000 voters were registered there.

Al-Mutlaq said soldiers broke into a polling station in a Sunni district of the Diyala city of Baqouba and took ballot boxes heavy with "no" votes and that later results showed a "yes" majority. His claims could not be independently verified.

"Bottom line, we can say that the whole operation witnessed interference from government forces," he said.

Al-Mutlaq and Sunni Arab parliament member Meshaan al-Jubouri said polling officials in Ninevah had informed them that the provincial capital, Mosul, voted predominantly "no" — as high as 80 percent — while the Electoral Commission reported a 50-50 split.

Somehow though, I am singularly unsurprised by this. I doubt anyone left of Rush Limbaugh is. The Iraqi power-players have proven adept students of the Bush/DeLay method of government after all - right the way down to their ability to steal their own country blind whilst in positions of power.

Update 18th Oct.

McSwain posted in comments that he is monitoring the fresh reports and bloggie analysis as they come in. He has the numbers for Nineveh which show a remarkable jump from an originally reported "no" of 21% now up to an estimated no of 57% "which still achieves the goal of the electoral officials of saving the Constitution from veto."
And notes:

However, given the now obviously fraudulent initial numbers, who is going to believe the election officials? Who is not going to believe that they are simply looking for a more sophisticated lie?

Indeed.