Iraqi Vote Under Investigation

- Iraqi election officials said today that they were investigating what they described as "unusually high" vote totals in 12 Shiite and Kurdish provinces, where as many 99 percent of the voters were reported to have cast ballots in favor of Iraq's new constitution, raising the possibility that the results of Saturday's referendum could be called into question.

In a statement released this evening, the Independent Election Commission of Iraq said the results of the Oct. 15 referendum would have to be delayed by "a few days," because the apparently high totals in favor of the constitution required that election workers "recheck, compare and audit" the results.

The statement made no mention of the possibility of fraud, but said the re-examination of the balloting was being done in order to comply with internationally accepted standards. Election officials say that under such standards, voting must be re-examined any time a candidate or a ballot question receives more than 90 percent of the vote.