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Turnout in the Iraqi election is reported
at 70 percent
22.12.2005
By Edward Wong
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BAGHDAD, Iraq,
Dec. 21 - Seventy percent of registered Iraqi voters
went to the polls during last week's election, the
highest participation in a vote since the fall of
Saddam Hussein, according to preliminary turnout
figures released by the Iraqi electoral commission
on Wednesday.
In all, 10.9 million of 15.6 million registered
voters cast ballots across Iraq on Dec. 15 for a new
four-year government, with a strong showing even in
Anbar Province, the heartland of the Sunni Arab
insurgency.
The overall turnout this time was considerably
higher than the 58 percent in January, when Sunni
Arabs largely boycotted the vote for a transitional
assembly. It was also higher than the 63 percent
figure during the October constitutional referendum,
which had greater Sunni Arab participation than the
election before it.
By comparison, turnout in the 2004 presidential
election in the United States was slightly over 58
percent of registered voters.
Iraqi electoral officials warned that the current
figures could still change, either up or down. As of
Wednesday, the commission was looking into more than
1,200 complaints of possible fraud or irregularity.
In Baghdad, for instance, the commission is
scrutinizing 5,100 ballots that were cast for the
main Shiite religious coalition, the United Iraqi
Alliance.
The overall turnout figure accounts for 95 percent
of the votes. The other five percent is being
investigated for irregularities or has not yet been
processed. In Anbar, where violence is rampant,
turnout was 55 percent, but only slightly more than
half of the votes have been reported so far.
Of the 10.9 million total votes processed, about
123,000 were ruled invalid and 54,000 were blank,
the commission said.
Turnout in Anbar was one of the big questions
surrounding this election. In January, turnout was a
mere 1 percent there; it rose to 32 percent in
October. Some residents said in October that they
had wanted to vote in the referendum, but feared
retribution by insurgents.
A split in insurgent groups emerged right before the
December elections. Some groups said they would not
attack polling stations or harm voters. Many Sunni
Arab clerics in Anbar and elsewhere told their
congregations to vote, in order to allow the Sunnis
to retake some measure of power in the government.
But the most militant group, Al Qaeda in
Mesopotamia, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, denounced
the elections and threatened voters with death. In
November, members of the group seized a prominent
Sunni politician in Ramadi, Anbar's provincial
capital, and killed him. Other well-known candidates
of his party were killed as they campaigned in Anbar.
The higher turnout could be partly due to a new
security system the American military and Iraqi
officials put in place for the vote. The American
and Iraqi officials agreed to allow tribal leaders
in Ramadi to guard the polling stations, rather than
the Iraqi Army and police.
The surge in Sunni Arab participation raises several
crucial questions. Are the Sunni Arabs committed to
building a unified Iraq and to compromising with the
religious Shiites and Kurds? Or are they trying to
enter the government with the intent of sabotaging
its operations from within? And will the Shiites and
Kurds trust the Sunni Arabs enough or find enough
common ground with them to invite them into the
government?
On Wednesday, Sunni Arab leaders met with officials
from the coalition of Ayad Allawi, the former prime
minister, to present a united front to contest the
early results. Since Monday, when the first set of
numbers was released, Sunni Arab parties and Mr.
Allawi's candidates have been accusing the main
religious Shiite coalition of voter fraud.
The numbers showed the religious Shiites taking a
strong lead, even in the mixed city of Baghdad.
Here, the Shiites got 58 percent of the vote.
Sunni Arabs are widely believed to make up a fifth
of Iraq's population, yet many of them claim they
are the majority in this country. That line of
thought could help explain their anger over the
results.
www.nytimes.com
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