They are recounting 300 ballot boxes from outlying regions to confirm the count. Doesn’t sound so bad to me, but it is somewat demoralizing to those who want to keep the energy high and know the outcome for sure.

Iraqi election officials admitted on Wednesday that the result of the country’s elections 11 days ago would be delayed to allow a recount of 300 ballot boxes from outlying regions.

The officials did not say when the final results, which had been due for release on Thursday, would be published. “It will be a little bit delayed,” said Farid Ayar, spokesman for Iraq’s independent elections commission. “We don’t know when this will finish.”

Officials said the 300 boxes to be recounted represented a “sample”, apparently to check the initial counts conducted by election centres throughout Iraq shortly after the votes were cast. Officials had hoped to publish final results for the election to the 275-seat assembly today – 11 days after the poll.

Some Sunni Arab politicians have expressed impatience with the slow vote count, alleging that the commission would use the extra time to manipulate the outcome.

However, those results so far announced tally with many voters’ expectations, with a coalition of mainly Shia groups taking more than half the vote and a Kurdish-led alliance taking nearly a quarter.