Iraqi candidate abducted ahead of vote results announcement

NOVANEWS
An Iraqi Kurdish man casts his ballot from a hopsital bed in the northern Kurdish city of Arbil on April 28, 2014, during special voting ahead of Iraq
An Iraqi Kurdish man casts his ballot from a hopsital bed in the northern Kurdish city of Arbil on April 28, 2014, during special voting ahead of Iraq’s first election since US troops withdrew.
An Iraqi parliamentary candidate has been abducted by militant groups, as election results are expected to be announced within days.

Police said gunmen abducted Rahman Abdulzahra al-Jazairi on Sunday near his home in the Jamila neighborhood in north Baghdad. They also injured Jazairi’s father and brother.

Jazairi is the general secretary of Hezbollah Warithun, which is an offshoot of Iraq’s main Hezbollah political party.

According to the party, security forces have launched efforts to secure his release.

The kidnapping, which is the first incident of its kind since the vote, comes a day after Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission said provincial results would be released on Sunday or Monday.

The commission added that the delay in the count of paper ballots was due to a series of complaints.

The Iraqi officials said earlier this month that the turnout from the parliamentary elections was about 60 percent, with the Kurdish province of Irbil having the highest turnout of 90 percent.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has hailed the high turnout, saying that the vote was a “slap in the face of terrorism.”

He has also said Saudi Arabia and Qatar are responsible for the security crisis and growing terrorism in his country.

Iraq is currently witnessing a wave of attacks unprecedented in recent years.

Based on official figures, over 1,000 people mostly civilians lost their lives in attacks across Iraq in April.

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