Suicide bombing targets ballot boxes in Iraq’s Kirkuk

By Hussein al-Amir

BAGHDAD

One policeman was killed and 22 people were injured in a suicide bombing targeting ballot boxes in Iraq’s northern Kirkuk province on Sunday, according to a local police officer.

A Daesh bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into a ballot box warehouse south of the Kirkuk province, police captain Hamed al-Obeidi told Anadolu Agency.

He said most of those injured in the attack were security personnel.

The election commission in Kirkuk, meanwhile, said no damage was reported to the ballot boxes from the bombing.

“Only two commission employees and a number of security personnel were injured in the attack,” commission spokesman Abdul-Basit Darwish said in a statement.

Sunday’s attack came two days before Iraq’s electoral commission starts the manual recount of votes from the May 12 parliamentary election, in which Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s Sairoon coalition won the most votes.

The Iraqi parliament earlier this month voted in favor of amending Iraq’s election law, allowing votes to be recounted manually, a decision that was upheld by the Supreme Federal Court.

Results of the parliamentary polls have been dogged by controversy and allegations of vote-rigging -- allegations denied by the leading coalitions.