Court disqualifies Iraq election candidates for Baathist ties

A Baghdad electoral court on Monday invalidated votes for some 52 candidates from last March's parliamentary polls on the grounds they were once members of the Baath Party.

The decision adds a new wrinkle to already chaotic political wrangling over the results of the election, and could further inflame political tensions that have produced a string of deadly bombings in recent weeks, dpa reported.

The court did not make its ruling public, and so it was initially unclear how many of the disqualified politicians had won the March 7 polls, or how the decision would effect the eventual outcome of the elections.

"The decision applies to 52 politicians," Ali al-Lami, of Iraq's Accountability and Justice Commission said. "Votes (cast for them) will not be counted in the total for those politicians' lists."

According to some reports, only one disqualified candidate, from former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's Iraqi List, had won in the polls.

But lawyer Tariq Harb told the German Press Agency dpa that "not more than four" disqualified candidates had won.

"Among the candidates affected by the decision are candidates from Allawi's list and Unity Alliance of Iraq," he said.

According to the electoral commission's last results, Allawi's Iraqi List squeezed out a two-seat victory over incumbent Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's State of Law coalition in the polls.

Those elections are widely seen as a key test of Iraq's stability ahead of the withdrawal of US combat troops from the country by the end of the year.

The disqualification of two or more winning candidates from Allawi's coalition would tip the balance in favour of al-Maliki, potentially giving him the right to form a government.

But the results showing Allawi with a razor-thin lead could already be subject to a recount.

An Iraqi court ruled last week in favour of a manual recount of votes cast in Baghdad, by far the largest electoral prize from the March polls.

Lawyers from al-Maliki's alliance had challenged the Baghdad results, saying they had evidence of fraud.

The electoral commission's Hamdiya al-Husseini on Monday said the candidates had one month to appeal the court's decision to exclude them on Monday.

If the decision is upheld on appeal, the question of how the invalidated votes should be distributed would still remain.

The fight over the new ruling will, at least, further stall an already protracted and convoluted dispute over the formation of a new parliament and a new government.