Iraqi President Fuad Masum referred to the Federal Supreme Court the decision of the outgoing parliament to cancel some of the results of the parliamentary elections and to resort to a manual counting of ten ballot boxes. The president considered the move as “unconstitutional”, while the defeated forces in the elections accused him of being “biased.” Last week, parliament held an extraordinary session to discuss “violations” that accompanied last month’s elections, and decided, after three failed attempts to complete the quorum, to cancel the results of elections abroad and conditional voting centers in the refugee camps in Anbar, Salaheddine, Nineveh and Diyala, for “evidence of fraud.” However, the votes of minorities covered by the quota system were excluded. “If the disparity between electronic and manual counting exceeds 25 percent, then the entire country will be subject to a manual recount,” the parliament said. The Iraqi presidency said in a statement that Masum’s decision came in line with the Constitution. “The President of the Republic is keen to ensure commitment to the Constitution, which requires the presidency to follow up and control everything that contradicts the principles of the Constitution and the laws in force,” the statement read. Commenting on parliament’s decision, it noted: “The presidency sees that this decision violates the constitution and the law of the commission. A proposal has been made for the federal court to declare its opinion concerning that.” Iraq’s Independent Electoral Commission announced on Thursday its “respect for the decisions of the parliament,” but “awaits the opinion of the federal court.” The Commission’s president, Riyad Badran, said in a press conference that the Commission would not tolerate any shortcoming or any electoral violation. “We do not fear or refuse the manual counting, but we need a decision because the law obligated us to conduct electronic counting and sorting,” he stated.