Shi'ites win elections in Iraq, but not by a majority
The party associated with the Great Ayatollah Al Sistani to take 128 of 275 seats. Sunnis take 55 seats and Kurds 53. Only 25 go to Allawi's "secular" party.
Baghdad (AsiaNews/Agencies) - As expected, the Shi'a block has won elections in Iraq, according to official results, released today, of voting which took place last December 15; however, the coalition associated with the Great Ayatollah Al Sistani has not obtained an absolute majority. In fact, according to official data, the United Iraqi Alliance, the slate of conservative Shi'ites, won 128 of parliament's 275 seats; second place goes, with 53 seats, to the Kurdish coalition, so far allied to the Shi'ites, consisting of Massud Barzani's Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) headed by Iraq's current interim president, Jalal Talabani. Five seats also went to the Islamic Union of Kurdistan.
Sunnis, taking part in their first real electoral test, will be represented in parliament by the National Concord Front (grouping the Iraqi Islamic Party, the Conference of the People of Iraq and part of the Iraqi National Dialogue) under the leadership of Adnan Al Dulaimy, which took 44 seats. The 11 seats won by the Iraqi National Dialogue led by Salih Al Mutlaq can also be added to the Sunni result. Another 25 seats went to the Iraqi National List led by Shi'ite, but secular, Iyad Allawi, which grouped together not only Shi'ites but also Sunnis, the independent democrats of Adnan Pachachi, as well as various tribal groups.
Parties have two days' time to challenge results before they are considered final. Sunni parties lodged complaints over voting irregularities from the day voting began. The International Commission of election observers confermed that irregularities did occur, but said that there were no grounds for repeating elections, as had been requested, nor were punitive actions taken against those responsible.
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