Baghdad: At least 5,000 demonstrators rallied on Tuesday in western Baghdad to protest alleged fraud in Iraq's December 15 general elections and demand a re-run of the poll as top politicians discussed the formation of a national unity government.
"No democracy without real elections", "rigged polls", "down with the electoral commission" read a number of banners.
The demonstration was called by the Maram alliance, an Arabic acronym for the Conference Rejecting Rigged Elections which includes both Sunni Arab and secular factions, dissatisfied with the preliminary election results suggesting that the Shiite-based religious parties will control the next Parliament.
Ali al-Tamimi, a spokesman for the Maram alliance of some 42 parties and factions said that the rally was meant to "show the Iraqi people's rejection of the ballot-rigging" in the election.
A similar demonstration was held in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, in the north of the country.
The leader of Iraq's main Shiite party, Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, met Tuesday in the north of the country with the leader of the Kurdistan regional government, Massud Barzani, to discuss the setting up of a coalition government, Kurdish officials said.
Hakim, a cleric and the leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), the main Shiite party in a majority Shiite country, was also expected to address the Kurdish regional parliament in Arbil on Wednesday.
The electoral commission has acknowledged receiving some 1,500 complaints, but says only a couple of dozens are "serious" enough to warrant possible annulment of some of the results.
However, Shiite politicians on Saturday rejected the accusations of fraud and denounced the use of street pressure to try to overturn the results.
Final election results are not expected before next week.
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