Iraqi parliament’s term to expire Saturday without extension, recount of votes due next week

The speaker of Iraq’s parliament has said the legislature’s term will end on Saturday unless lawmakers vote to extend it until after a recount of May’s election votes is complete. Salim al-Jabouri also said, during a news conference on Thursday, that a manual recount of votes in the national election last month will begin next week. The outgoing parliament this month passed a law mandating a nationwide manual recount of votes. However, the panel of judges now in charge of the recount said it would only be conducted for problematic ballots, Reuters reported.