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Hundreds
of Arab and Turkmen protesters took to the streets
of Iraq's disputed northern oil city of Kirkuk,
saying that last month's election had been riddled
with fraud and demanding a re-run.
"No, no to federalism! No, no to fraud!", chanted
the demonstrators, who gathered in the city centre
on Friday before heading south to march past the
offices of the two main Kurdish parties.
Kurds want Kirkuk to be made the capital of an
enlarged autonomous region, and thousands of Kurds
who were displaced from the city under Saddam
Hussein were allowed to vote two weeks ago.
"There are documents and plenty of evidence showing
that fraud took place during the elections in Kirkuk,"
said a statement which was distributed to protesters
and signed by 16 Arab and Turkmen groups.
Tension
Among the signatories were the Ankara-funded Iraqi
Turkmen Front, the Shia religious party Dawa, and
the movement of Shia radical leader Muqtada al-Sadr.
"We ask for new elections to be held in Kirkuk to
guarantee they are transparent, because Kirkuk is on
the edge of a flaming pit," the document said.
Sunni and Shia Arab parties pulled out of the
election in Tamim province around Kirkuk to protest
against the authorities' registration of tens of
thousands of non-resident Kurds who argued their
families had been forced out of the city under
Saddam Hussein.
The decision effectively tipped the balance in
favour of the Kurds in the city, prompting dire
warnings of sectarian violence from Arabs and
Turkmen.
A Kurdish weekly reported the main Kurdish alliance
was poised to win two-thirds of the vote and take 26
of the 41 seats on Tamim provincial council.
http://english.aljazeera.net
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