Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, whose bloc came second in Iraq’s general election, sharply criticised the UN envoy to Baghdad on Sunday over his inaction on vote fraud allegations.

“If I were in Melkert’s position and in front of this wave of problems, I would have said, ‘You should go all the way through (to detect fraud),’” he said in a television interview, referring to United Nations envoy Ad Melkert.

“But Melkert has said, ‘Well, it is difficult because of time.’” IC