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BAGHDAD, Dec 16 (AFP)
- 19h44 - The Shiite religious coalition is leading
in the polls in Iraq's five southern provinces, the
Kurdish Alliance looks set to win the north and a
Sunni coalition leads in a central province,
unofficial results showed Friday after millions of
Iraqis voted in elections.
The strong results for the conservative Shiite
United Iraqi Alliance were expected in southern
Iraq. However, the UIA might face stiffer
competition in urban areas like Baghdad from secular
former premier Ilyad Allawi, whose list often scored
second in Shiite regions.
In Karbala province, the UIA may have marked its
highest score, at 85 percent, according to a source
close to the independent electoral commission but
not confirmed by the body.
The UIA includes religious parties like the Supreme
Council for the Islamic Revolution (SCIRI) and Prime
Minister Ibrahim Jaafari's Dawa party.
In Babil province, 70 percent of the electorate went
for the UIA, with Allawi managing to scrape up 17
percent, according to an election commission source.
In the Kurdish north, the Kurdish alliance, pairing
the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the
Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP), apparently
perpetuated its total dominance of the autonomous
region's politics.
In Arbil, the alliance took 86 percent of the votes
while the Kurdish Islamic Party took only 3.4
percent, according to a PUK official. In Dohuk, the
alliance claimed 76 percent, and 71 percent in
Sulaimaniyah.
In the Sunni-dominated province of Salaheddin, the
capital of which is Saddam Hussein's hometown of
Tikrit, a Sunni coalition that included the Iraqi
Islamic Party led with 45 percent of the votes. It
was followed by Allawi at 30 percent, an electoral
source said.
More than two-thirds of Iraqi voters turned out
nationwide in the country's landmark election,
according to first estimates Friday, but final
results were not expected for at least two weeks.
An international monitoring mission said the
election had generally met international standards,
and hailed the organisers for meeting a "difficult
challenge."
In many regions, voters were thought to give strong
local backing to parties or coalitions based on
Shiite, Sunni, Turkmen and Christian leanings.
AFP
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