Vote-buying claims threaten poll credibility

Iraq's elections commission has promised to punish political parties found guilty of vote-buying - reports of which may threaten the credibility of next week's national vote. "We have received many complaints about vote-buying and bribes and we have filed them to the Baghdad office where they are in the investigating process," Abdulrahman Khalifa, head of public relations for the Iraqi High Electoral Commission, IHEC, told IWPR. "The complaints included giving fuel, guns and money in exchange for votes. IHEC has tough penalties for these violations." The IHEC does not have figures for the number of bribery allegations it has received, but a rash of claims has been reported by the media and NGOs across Iraq. The Baghdad-based Sun Network, Iraq's largest election watchdog, recently released its third report on alleged violations taking place in cities as far apart as Erbil and Basra.