Iraq's election commission is investigating irregular voting patterns votes in about a dozen provinces following Iraq's weekend referendum on a new constitution.
The investigation by Iraq's election commission has raised the possibility that the results of the referendum could be called into question. As many as 99 percent of the voters reportedly approved Iraq's draft constitution in some of the provinces being investigated
News of the review came as Sunni Arab leaders repeated accusations of fraud claiming police interfered with ballot boxes and that some areas where support was high for the constitution had more votes cast than registered voters.
The Electoral Commission has made no mention of fraud, but an official with knowledge of the election process warned it was too early to say whether the unusual numbers were incorrect or if they would affect the outcome.
Questions about the numbers raised tensions over Saturday's referendum, which has already sharply divided Iraqis.
Most of the Shia majority and the Kurds - the coalition that controls the government - support the charter, while most Sunni Arabs sharply oppose the document for fear will signal the break up of Iraq.
A prominent Sunni Arab politician, Saleh al-Mutlaq, claimed Diyala province in particular had seen vote rigging. He said he was told by the manager of a polling station in a Kurdish district of Diyala that 39,000 votes were cast, although only 36,000 voters were registered there.
Mr al-Mutlaq said soldiers broke into a polling station in a Sunni district of the Diyala city of Baqouba and took ballot boxes heavy with "no" votes, and that later results showed a "yes" majority. His claims could not be independently verified.
If the constitution is passed, the first full-term parliament since Saddam Hussein's fall in 2003 will install a new government by December 31st following December 15th elections.
If it fails to pass, the parliament elected that month will be temporary and will have the task of drawing up a new draft constitution.
Meanwhile, insurgents resumed attacks that had fallen sharply during Saturday's vote at heavily protected polling stations across the country.
In Baghdad, militants shot and killed an adviser to one of Iraq's top Sunni Arab officials as he drove to work today, police said.
In fighting in western Iraq, two US Marines and four militants were killed near the town of Rutba, not far from the Jordanian border, on Monday, the military said. At least 1,978 members of the US military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003.