Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission cancelled on Wednesday voting results in the May 12 parliamentary elections from more than 1000 polling stations in 10 provinces and six countries, after verifying violations. It was not clear how this step would directly affect the final results of the Iraqi elections, in which Muqtada al-Sadr emerged with the largest bloc of seats and won the right to form a new government, the Iranian-backed Fatah alliance came in second and the current government, headed by PM Haider al-Abadi, came in third. In a statement issued on Wednesday, the Commission said it was cancelling voting results in the recent parliament elections from 1,021 polling stations, adding it would hold violators accountable. The Commission said its teams voluntarily scrutinized 2000 stations, out of which 852 proved to have witnessed breaches, and therefore the cancellation of results. It also said that 67 stations for expatriate voters had their results cancelled due to violations, including in the US, Germany, the UK, Sweden, Jordan and Turkey. The IHEC said that its technical and legal committees labeled 102 polling stations as "red,” due to serious complaints that affect results of polls. Those polling stations include votes from 7 polling stations in Erbil, 51 polling stations in Anbar, 17 in Baghdad-Karkh, 11 in Salahudin and 16 in Nineveh. They included votes from the early voting of security members, voting of refugee camps and some of the general polling stations, the statement said. The IHEC step coincided Wednesday with a parliament session attended by 30 MPs who held their first reading of an amendment to the election law. The session lasted only 10 minutes following a decision to hold a second reading next Saturday, with a vote next Wednesday, if parliament meets quorum. If passed, the amendment will commit the electoral commission to recounting all votes manually. Two days ago, the Iraqi parliament had approved manual recounting of 10 percent of votes in the May 12 parliamentary election amid allegations of fraud and forgery.