|
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP)
- Iraq's main Shiite Muslim alliance expects to win
the biggest share in the country's National Assembly
but not enough to push through a political agenda or
claim the prime minister's job without support from
other parties - notably the Kurds.
Although no official results from Sunday's election
have been announced, officials of the United Iraqi
Alliance, endorsed by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani,
say they expect to claim roughly half the 275 seats.
The Alliance leader, Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, told an
Iraqi television station Tuesday night that his
ticket "has achieved a wide victory in the
elections."
That figure, in line with pre-election predictions,
appears based on reports from the alliance's poll
watchers, who were on hand for the first-round
counting that began at local precincts late Sunday.
The ticket headed by interim Prime Minister Ayad
Allawi, a secular Shiite backed by the United
States, is running second in central and southern
Iraq, according to politicians from several
factions.
In the Kurdish-run areas of the north, however, the
Kurdish Alliance - a coalition of the two major
Kurdish parties - is expected to win so many votes
that it could surpass Allawi in the final national
tally.
An official with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan,
one of the two largest groups on the Kurdish list,
said his group expected to win up to 65 seats. Kurds
make up about 20 percent of Iraq's 26 million people
and voted in large numbers in their northern,
autonomous region.
According to the interim constitution, the National
Assembly will elect a president and two deputies by
a two-thirds majority. The president and his
deputies then will choose a prime minister, who
forms the new government.
With Allawi and the Kurds appearing to have done
well at the polls, the Shiite alliance is unlikely
to win the two-thirds majority it would need to
secure the prime minister's job.
Even without final vote results, the political
maneuvering has begun. On the day after the
election, Allawi appeared on television urging
national unity and promising to work to produce a
government that included all segments of Iraq's
diverse religious and ethnic communities.
That appeared to have been a subtle dig at the
Shiite Alliance. Although that ticket includes some
Sunnis, it is widely seen - especially by Sunni
Arabs - as the voice of the Shiite clergy.
The two major parties in the Shiite Alliance - the
Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq
and Dawa - have close ties to Iran, where many of
the group's leaders spent years in exile when Saddam
Hussein was in power.
In searching for allies, the group is believed to be
looking toward the Kurds. Both Shiites and Kurds
suffered more than Sunnis under Saddam's rule.
Before the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, the
Kurds allowed elements of the Shiite's Badr Brigade
militia to cross from Iran into Kurdish-controlled
territory in the north.
"We have agreed with the Kurds and the others to
keep these coalitions even after the elections,"
al-Hakim told Al-Arabiya television. "We are still
insisting to form a partnership government formed by
all the segments of the Iraqi people."
Yet despite their shared memories of oppression
under Saddam, the Shiites and Kurds have separate
agendas that could make it difficult to maintain an
alliance. The top priority for the Kurds is to
ensure the new constitution guarantees them
self-rule in the north.
Although the Shiite Alliance has carefully avoided a
hard-line Islamic agenda, key figures were upset
over parts of the interim constitution pushed by the
United States before the transfer of sovereignty
last June.
Chief among the complaints were changes in family
law granting women more rights in divorce and
downplaying the role of Islam as the foundation of
Iraqi law. The Kurds would be unlikely to accept
such a platform without firm guarantees of self-rule
in exchange.
They also want the country's presidency - a post
that was denied them in favor of a Sunni Arab in the
negotiations leading to the interim government. The
Kurds maintain the Sunni Arabs have squandered their
right to hold the presidency because many boycotted
the weekend elections.
AP
Top |
® 