BAGHDAD, Apr 13, 2012 (AFP) - A judge from Iraq's anti-corruption watchdog has ordered the head of the nation's electoral commission and another member of the panel to be jailed until Sunday, a fellow commission member told AFP.
Faraj al-Haidari, the head of the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) and member Karim al-Tamimi are jailed "until Sunday due to a decision taken by a judge from the integrity commission," a member of IHEC said Friday on condition of anonymity.
The judge could also order an extension of their custody.
Asked about the matter, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's spokesman Ali Mussawi said only that "it is a judicial issue related to the integrity commission and the judiciary."
Haidari and Tamimi were arrested on Thursday for paying a bonus of 150,000 dinars ($130) to an IHEC employee, Judge Qassem Abboudi, also a member of the commission, told AFP.
Karima al-Assadi, a spokeswoman for IHEC, said Thursday that "an investigation of the integrity committee (Iraq's anti-corruption watchdog) was underway within the electoral commission."
There is bad blood between Haidari, a 64-year-old Shiite Kurd, and Iraqi Maliki's State of Law list over the former's refusal to carry out a national recount after 2010 parliamentary polls, in which the premier's list came in second to rival Iyad Allawi's Iraqiya list.
Haidari only recounted the votes in Baghdad province.
The State of Law list sought a no-confidence vote on Haidari for alleged corruption, but failed because other parties opposed the move.
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