LOC11:58
08:58 GMT
BAGHDAD, Oct 27 (KUNA) -- Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission said on Wednesday it has started the manual recount of votes at several polling stations whose results were rejected by losing rivals.
Representatives and observers from the country's political parties and blocs are attending the manual recount, the commission said in a post on its twitter account.
The commission had accepted challenges against the early vote results of more than 1,000 polling centers in different Iraqi provinces, expecting that the recount process might take several days to complete.
It also confirmed that the manual count for a sample of polling boxes had matched the initial results.
The early parliamentary election in Iraq was the fifth since the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein's regime.
Several political blocs have rejected the results of the country's latest general polls as "fraudulent". (end)
ahh.mt