Shiites and Kurds big winners in Iraq election
Clergy-backed Shiites and independence-minded Kurds swept to victory in Iraq’s elections, according to final results released tonight.
The results propel to power the groups that suffered most under Saddam Hussein and forced Sunni Arabs to the margins for the first time in modern history.
But the Shiites’ 48% of the vote in the January 30 election fell short of the votes needed to control the 275-member National Assembly. That now places the focus on backdoor deals to create a new government – possibly in an alliance with the Kurds – and on efforts to lure Sunnis into the fold and away from a bloody insurgency.
“This is a new birth for Iraq,” election commission spokesman Farid Ayar said, announcing the results. Iraqi voters “became a legend in their confrontation with terrorists”.
Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, the secular Shiite chosen by the United States to lead the country for the last eight turbulent months, fared poorly - his ticket finishing a distant third behind the religious Shiites and Kurds.
The Shiite-dominated United Iraqi Alliance ticket received 4,075,295 votes, or about 48% of the total cast, officials said.
The Kurdistan Alliance, a coalition of two main Kurdish parties, finished second with 2,175,551 votes, or 26%, and the Iraqi List headed by Allawi stood third with 1,168,943 votes, or nearly 14%.
Parties have three days to lodge complaints, after which the results will be certified and seats in the new Assembly distributed. Seats will generally be allocated according to the percentage of votes that each ticket won. It appeared only 12 coalitions would take seats.
“This is a great victory for the Iraqi people,” said Ahmad Chalabi, a member of the Shiite ticket. “We will have an assembly which is elected by the people and the government which is completely legitimate and elected by the people.”
But the results also highlighted the sharp differences among Iraq’s ethnic, religious and cultural groups – many of whom fear domination not just by the Shiites, estimated at 60% of the population, but also by the Kurds, the most pro-American group with about 15%.
In the oil-rich, ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk, Iraqi Kurds danced in the streets and waved Kurdish flags when results were announced. Thousands more Kurds – a people who were gassed and forced from their homes by Saddam’s forces - turned out in Sulaimaniyah, firing weapons in the air and carrying posters of their leaders.
“I feel that I am born again,” said Bakhtiyar Mohammed, 42. “I am very happy because we suffered a lot. Now I can say that I am an Iraqi Kurd with pride.”
The results also draw attention to the close and longtime ties between now-victorious Iraqi Shiite leaders and clerics in neighbouring Iran. The Shiite ticket owes its success to the support of Iraq’s clerics, including Iranian-born Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
In contrast, many Sunni Arabs, who make up an estimated 20% of the population, stayed home on election day, either out of fear of violence or to support a boycott call by radical clerics opposed to the US military.
Overall, national turnout was about 60%, the commission said – but only 2% of the eligible voters cast ballots in Anbar province, the Sunni insurgent stronghold that includes Ramadi and Fallujah.
Turnout was also low in the Sunni Arab provinces of Ninevah and Salaheddin, both insurgency centres.
After results came out today, some Sunnis again rejected the whole process.
“The elections were held to fight the Sunnis and were led by the Americans with the Kurds and Shiites,” said Ramadi mechanic Abdullah al-Dulaimi. “The election results will lead to a sectarian war.”
Mindful of such tensions, Shiite leaders went out of their way to assure disaffected Sunnis, as well as Turkomen, Christians and others, that they would have a place in the new Iraq and a role in drafting the new constitution.
Finance Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi, a member of the Shiite ticket mentioned as a possible prime minister, insisted that Shiite leaders do not want “an Islamic government.”
And the Shiite ticket’s leader, Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, told Iraqi television: “We believe in the need for participation and will seek harmony among all segments of the Iraqi people.”
But finding credible Sunni leaders – who can speak for both average Sunnis and also reach out to the insurgency – could prove difficult.
Although the Shiite ticket included some Sunnis, prominent Sunni Arab politicians fared poorly due to the boycott: The list headed by interim President Ghazi al-Yawer, a Sunni Arab, won only 150,680 votes. The ticket led by Sunni elder statesman Adnan Pachachi gained only 12,728 votes.
Pachachi, who had pleaded with the Bush administration to delay the election to allow time to win Sunni support, said it was now clear “a big number of Iraqis” did not vote.
Because relatively few Sunnis will end up in the assembly, some Iraqi politicians have suggested appointing Sunnis to advisory committees to help draft the new constitution.
But the Association of Muslim Scholars, believed to have some ties to the insurgency, has demanded tough conditions for accepting such a role – including a timetable for the withdrawal of US troops. The group also wants to end purges of members of Saddam’s Baath party from the government.
Many Shiites and Kurds – with bitter memories of Saddam’s repression – have opposed opening government ranks to former Baathists.
And in general, those groups also have said they want US troops to stay for now.
No date has been set for convening the new assembly. Its first task will be to elect a president and two vice presidents. They in turn will select a new prime minister.
