Rice: Iraq constitution has been approved
Election officials counted millions of paper ballots across Iraq today as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said it appeared the country’s draft constitution had passed – despite a surprisingly large turnout by Sunni Arab opponents.
Rice made the comments during a visit to London as an elections official in Baghdad also said that indications point to the charter having been approved.
Initial estimates of overall turnout were 61%, election officials said. But competition was more intense in the three most crucial Sunni-dominated provinces - Diyala, Ninevah, Salahuddin, where more than 66% of voters turned out.
The constitution is a crucial step in Iraq’s transition to democracy after two decades of rule by Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship. Washington is hoping it passes so that Iraqis can form a legitimate, representative government, tame the insurgency and enable the 150,000 US troops to begin to withdraw.
The European Union praised Saturday’s vote, with EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner calling it “an important step to a future in which political differences will be settled in Iraq through democratic dialogue, and not through violence”.
To defeat the constitution, Sunnis have to muster a two-thirds “no” vote in any three of Iraq’s 18 provinces. They were likely to reach that threshold in the vast Sunni heartland of Anbar province in the west. Salahuddin also looked possible, but getting the required votes in either Ninevah or Diyala could be more difficult.
Meanwhile two mortars hit Baghdad’s Green Zone this morning, the heavily fortified district where US and Iraqi government offices are located including the main centre where all the votes from across the country are being counted and compiled. It was not clear if the mortars struck anywhere near the counting centre. The blasts raised plumes of smoke from the zone but caused no injuries of significant damage, the US Embassy said.
The attack came shortly after authorities lifted a driving ban imposed on Saturday to try to prevent suicide car bombs during voting. The ban was part of a nationwide security clampdown.
Iraq’s Shiite Muslim majority and significant Kurdish minority – who control the National Assembly and government – favour the constitution.
But many in the Sunni Arab minority, who controlled the country under Saddam Hussein, were pushing hard to defeat it. They fear the charter will break the country into three sections: powerful Kurdish and Shiite mini-states in the oil-rich north and south, and a weak and impoverished Sunni zone in central and western Iraq.
A nationwide simple majority in favour of the draft is assured. The nine provinces of the south, the heartland of the Shiites, and the three provinces of the Kurdish autonomous zone in the north were expected to roll in big ”yes” numbers.
If the constitution fails, a new constitution must be drafted by a new parliament, to be elected in December. If it passes, a new parliament will also be elected and a new government selected – the first permanent, fully constitutional government in Iraq since the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s rule in 2003.
Each province counts its own votes, then sends a report of the results to Baghdad, along with the ballot boxes. In Baghdad, the count is checked, then compiled.
In Karbala, a Shiite province just south of Baghdad, some 440,000 people voted - a 60% turnout – and 95% of them cast “yes,” ballots, according to the head of the election commission office in the province, Safaa al-Mousawi.
An official in the main Shiite political party in the ruling coalition, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, said that the southern Shiite provinces of Najaf and Basra and Baghdad, which has a mixed population, together voted 90% “yes.”
