Most of the fraud allegations concern electronic voting machines that were used for the first time in the May balloting.

Mr. Sadr, in a statement, appealed to his supporters to exercise “self-control” and called on them to obey the law, even if they found the Supreme Court’s ruling unconvincing.

He urged the Iraqi judiciary to be “committed to neutrality” with respect to the recount, and he called for a quick completion of the process. He also said that political factions should continue their negotiations with the aim of forming a government.

“There are concerns that the manual recounting and sorting of votes might become a pretext to hold the elections again, encroach on the choices of the electorate and restrict the democratic process and that future voter turnout might be lower,” he warned. He also said that the recount should not be exploited by those who wanted to keep corrupt forces in power.

Hadi al-Amiri, a Shiite political leader with ties to Iran, blamed the government and the electoral commission for the voting problems, attributing the election irregularities to their “failing administration.”

Tariq Harb, a legal expert, called the Supreme Court’s ruling the “constitutionally correct and proper decision.”

There is still the problem of a warehouse storing as many as four million ballots from eastern Baghdad, which burned down days after Parliament filed the legislation for a recount. The departing parliamentary speaker, Salim al-Jabouri, called it arson and said the fire was set to cover up fraud. An electoral official, Saeed Kakei, said that photocopies of the ballots had been made and preserved and could be examined for the recount.