Iraq election commission rejects calls for vote recount

Iraq's election commission has rejected calls from the president and prime minister for a recount of votes cast in the general election on 7 March. An election official said a recount of all votes would be impossible and was unnecessary because of checks on fraud. Earlier, President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nouri Maliki backed calls for a manual recount of votes. Partial results indicate a close race between Mr Maliki and former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. But the long delay in announcing the full results has led to growing allegations of fraud.