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Kurdish
aspirations for a semi-autonomous Kurdistan within
Iraq were given a strong fillip by Sunday's official
election results, which gave the main Kurdish
parties more than a quarter of the overall vote.
The results will harden Kurdish resolve to press for
autonomy in drawing up Iraq's permanent
constitution, and consolidate their sense of
empowerment after decades of suppression by the
former Baathist regime of Saddam Hussein.
The official tally gave the Iraq Kurdistan
Democratic Party (KDP), Patriotic Union of Kurdistan
(PUK) and Islamic Union of Kurdistan (IUK) together
a total of 2.17m from 8.55m votes cast.
Kurdish reaction to the announcement of the results
was nevertheless low-key, as cold, damp weather kept
people indoors and bazaars closed early. Another
factor in muted reaction was that the results were
as forecast.
Aside from national election results, the electoral
commission also announced that the main Kurdish
parties' list won more than 1.5m of 1.75m votes cast
for the Kurds' own regional assembly.
In provincial election results for Kirkuk, a mixed
province where Saddam Hussein's regime carried out
extensive Arabisation, the Kurdish list won a clear
majority, with 237,303 of 400,392 votes cast, far
ahead of the 73,191 won by the Turkoman Front, a
coalition of Turkoman parties allied to Turkey.
Kirkuk's elections reanimated concern about the
sectarian balance in the province, where the Iraqi
electoral commission enfranchised about 100,000
displaced Kurds who had returned to the province
since the fall of Mr Hussein.
Turkey and some Iraqi Arab groups had opposed this
decision, and expressed disquiet at growing Kurdish
influence in the province, which contains 8.7bn
barrels of oil, Iraq's second-largest oilfield.
Kurds now have two expectations of their leaders:
that they should unify the two distinct
administrations run by the KDP and the PUK; and that
they should secure an autonomous Kurdish region in
the Iraqi constitution to be agreed by the end of
the year.
The KDP and PUK leaders, Massoud Barzani and Jalal
Talabani, announced last week a common post-election
strategy and will support Mr Talabani as either
president or prime minister of Iraq, while Mr
Barzani becomes president of the Kurdish region.
The Kurds have a long-standing alliance with the
Shia parties with whom they generally agree on the
importance of "de-Baathification".
But they are also sceptical of proposals, made by
some Shia, to enshrine Islam within the new
constitution. The weekend visit of Iyad Allawi to
Kurdistan suggests the Kurds will play Mr Allawi's
bloc off against the Shia United Iraq Alliance,
which is expected to have secured about 132 of 275
seats in the assembly.
There is also a popular fear of Kurdish energies
being squandered in Baghdad.
"I don't think it's a good idea for Jalal Talabani
to be president," said a woman in Suleimania. "He
should be working for the people in Kurdistan, not
to keep Iraq together."
Events will also be watched closely by the millions
of Kurds in the neighbouring countries of Turkey,
Iran and Syria.
"This election can be a step towards achieving
constitutional recognition of Kurdish autonomy; the
first time this would be achieved in any country,"
said an Iranian Kurd living in Arbil.
http://news.ft.com
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