An Iraqi boy wading through flood waters in the southern town of Safwan following heavy rains near the Kuwaiti-Iraqi border yesterday.

BAGHDAD: International experts investigating complaints of fraud in Iraq’s December 15 parliamentary election will deliver preliminary findings today or tomorrow the head of the team said yesterday.

A board member of Iraq’s Election Commission said uncertified final results of the election could then be released within a week.

Minority Sunni Arab and secular parties have complained of vote-rigging in the poll which was dominated by the ruling Shi’ite Islamist Alliance and some had called for a rerun.

“We will release a statement on the team’s preliminary findings on the 15th or 16th,” Mazen Thouaib, director of operations for the International Mission for Iraqi Elections (IMIE), told Reuters in Baghdad.

Iraqi Electoral Commissioner Adel Al-Lamy said he expected the Independent Electoral Commission (IECI) to hold a news conference, possibly on Monday, to disclose its rulings on more than 2,000 complaints received.

Officials have previously said results from between 50 and 70 out of 31,000 ballot boxes may be ruled out. Following that disclosure, Lamy added: “We hope that uncertified final results will be released within a week.” The Commission insists the election was fair. The United Nations and the United States agree and have effectively ruled out any rerun of the voting.

A team of four international experts, operating under the auspices of IMIE, has been reviewing electoral procedures, meeting political parties and studying complaints of electoral irregularities over the past few days.

“The IECI has been very helpful and very transparent. They stopped doing their work to ensure we had full access to all their files. We did disrupt their schedule,” Thouaib said.

“(The experts) have been reviewing the conduct of the elections, looking at all the issues raised by the political parties, looking at voter registration, voter lists and reports of intimidation,” he said.

In a preliminary report issued on election day, IEMI said despite some concern over technical and procedural issues, Iraq’s election had generally met international standards.

After boycotting an election in January 2005, Sunni Arabs, once dominant under Saddam Hussein, went to the polls in large numbers on December 15 to ensure a voice in the new parliament.

An almost final tally of parliamentary seats said Sunni parties would have about a fifth of the seats, while the Shi’ite Islamist Alliance would fall only a few seats short of retaining its slim absolute majority.

Despite Sunni Arab concerns about the results, the main Sunni political parties appear ready to form a grand coalition government with Shi’ites and Kurds.

Meanwhile, a powerful Shi’ite leader said yesterday Iraq’s new government should reflect the results of last month’s general election rather than an undemocratic consensus between political parties.

The comments by Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, head of the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) coalition, came as political wrangling between Iraq’s majority Shi’ites, minority Sunni Arabs and the Kurds gets underway to form the country’s first full-term government since the fall of Saddam Hussein in April 2003.

A consensus-based government “signifies the end of democracy, the end of giving power to the majority and of the elections,” Hakim told the publicly-funded Al-Sabah newspaper.

Rejecting consensus politics, Hakim called for a more representative government based on the results of the election. He indicated that Sunni Arabs and Kurds would be invited to take part in the government, but only on the terms of the winning Shiite coalition.

As a result, said Hakim, the country would also enjoy a viable opposition — crucial in a democracy.

“We think there are sections of the Iraqi population who must take part, at the moment, in the planning and execution” of the political process, he said.

“Therefore, we believe their participation is necessary in the formation of the next government.”

However, the Shi’ite leader also defended the existence of a “genuine opposition to complete the structure of the democratic system.” US and British officials have repeatedly warned Iraq’s political parties that in a democratic election there are winners and losers.