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BAGHDAD, Iraq
(AP) - Final results from last month's parliamentary
elections might not be announced for two more weeks,
an official said Tuesday, a day after Iraq's main
Sunni Arab group agreed on broad outlines for a
coalition government.
The Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq has
completed its investigation of almost 2,000 election
complaints and will announce the findings Wednesday,
commission member Hussein Hindawi told The
Associated Press.
But the commission won't announce final election
results until an international team finishes its
work, meaning results might not be ready for two
weeks, said commission member Safwat Rashid.
Officials previously said final results of the Dec.
15 vote would be announced in early January.
The commission investigated 1,980 complaints,
including 50 that were considered serious enough to
alter results in some districts, an election
official said.
The international team, which began its work Monday,
agreed to review Iraq's elections after protests by
Sunni Arab and secular Shiite groups that the polls
were tainted with fraud.
Preliminary results give the governing Shiite
religious bloc, the United Iraqi Alliance, a big
lead but one that still would require forming a
coalition with other groups.
As part of the bargaining for a new coalition
government, President Jalal Talabani assured Prime
Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari that his fellow Kurds
would not object if the United Iraqi Alliance - the
Shiite religious bloc that won the most votes in the
election - again nominates him for the post of prime
minister.
But it was the agreement struck by Kurdistan
regional President Massoud Barzani and
representatives of the main Sunni Arab Iraqi
Accordance Front that opened the way for a new
broad-based government. It also drew the ire of
minority parties and secular groups.
``They will be part of a future government,'' said
Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, a Kurd who sat in
on the meetings.
Sunni Arabs and secular parties, such as the one
headed by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a
Shiite, have complained the elections were tainted
by fraud and intimidation. They have demanded a new
vote in some provinces, including Baghdad.
With the agreement, the Accordance Front seems to
have broken a pact to only discuss those complaints
during their meetings with the Kurds. Opposition
groups are waiting for international monitors to
assess the elections. The U.N. has called the vote
credible.
The International Mission for Iraqi Elections said
it helped monitor the elections in Baghdad and was
assisted by monitors from countries of the European
Union.
Hindawi said some members of the international team
had begun working.
Rashid said that although his panel was separate
from the international monitoring team, it would
take into consideration the international team's
findings before announcing results. ``If they work
hard, they might finish within a week,'' he said.
It took about two weeks to announce final results
from interim parliamentary elections on Jan. 30,
2005.
Adnan al-Dulaimi and Tarek al-Hashimi, leaders of
the main Sunni Arab group the Iraqi Accordance
Front, discussed the shape of a future government
with Barzani in Irbil, which in recent days has
become a pilgrimage site for southern politicians.
The leader of the Shiite religious bloc, Abdul Aziz
al-Hakim, visited last week.
``There is an agreement to form a balanced Iraqi
government by consensus and cooperation and away
from any sectarian affairs,'' al-Dulaimi said.
Saleh al-Mutlaq, head of the Sunni Arab National
Dialogue Front, told The Associated Press he was
shocked when he heard that al-Dulaimi and al-Hashimi
were discussing a national unity government.
The Accordance Front could be trying to shut out
groups headed by al-Mutlaq and Allawi to form a
government with the Shiite bloc and the Kurds.
``This act definitely weakens and distracts our
claims about the fraudulent results,'' al-Mutlaq
said of the Accordance Front's agreement. ``I
believe they are capable of making a deal with the
devil himself so that they can be represented widely
in the coming government.''
The Shiite religious bloc may win about 130 seats in
the 275-seat parliament - short of the 184 seats
needed to avoid a coalition with other parties to
elect a president. That election is a prerequisite
before a government can be formed.
The Kurds could get about 55 seats, the main Sunni
Arab groups about 50 - the Front getting about 40
and al-Mutlaq's group 10 - and Allawi secular's bloc
could receive about 25.
A deal by the three groups - the Shiite United Iraqi
Alliance, the Sunni Arab Iraqi Accordance Front and
the Kurdish coalition - could go a long way toward
quickly forming a government that would have
widespread approval among Iraq's three main ethnic
and sectarian groups, leading to a decrease in
violence from Sunni Arab insurgents.
AP
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