BAGHDAD, Oct 22: Only one Sunni-dominated province so far has rejected the draft Iraqi constitution with a majority of more than two-thirds, electoral officials said on Saturday as they presented partial results from the Oct 15 referendum.

If three of Iraq’s 18 provinces reject with a two-thirds majority the charter for Iraq as it moves away from the Saddam Hussein, the constitution would be rejected, new elections held and a new draft written.

The province of Salaheddin, which includes Saddam’s home town of Tikrit, voted no by 81.5 per cent, while the yes camp prevailed in 12 other provinces for which results were available, the commission said.

Figures from the remaining five provinces, including two crucial ones, Al Anbar and Nineveh, were not released.

“Four governorates not included in this first set are those that are currently undergoing a field audit and in the case of Anbar data is still being inputted into the system for checking,” the commission said.

“The results from these governorates and audit reports will be presented as part of the final preliminary results scheduled for release early this week.”

“In order to ensure the integrity the field reporting of results to the IECI headquarters, the commission dispatched teams of auditors to several governorates to physically verify the reporting mechanisms and examine the source information.

“This audit is scheduled to be completed in the coming days at which point the IECI will release a complete set of provisional results.”

Results released on Saturday could not reliably predict an outcome to the vote, the commission stressed. —AFP