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Turnout for Iraq election solid at 62 %
9.3.2010
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March
9, 2010
BAGHDAD, —
Preliminary results were not expected for another
day or two in a poll that Iraqis sickened by
violence hope will help bring better governance and
stability after years of sectarian slaughter, and as
U.S. troops prepare to withdraw.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's State of Law bloc
likely did well in the Shi'ite south while a
secular, Sunni-Shi'ite alliance led by former
premier Iyad Allawi appeared strong in Sunni areas
in the north and west, informal tallies suggested.
The voter participation in excess of 60 percent was
better than many had feared and indicated Iraqis
were not deterred by blasts that thudded across the
capital on election day.
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Iraqi officials blamed
the explosions on mortar, rockets and roadside
bombs, but U.S. military officials said many were
caused by "noise bombs" consisting of explosives in
plastic bottles.
"Those who love Iraq and its people were eager for
the elections to succeed," Maliki said at a dinner
for foreign election observers. "Those who love
dictatorship and terrorism were opposed to holding
what Iraqis saw as a celebration."
In provinces predominantly inhabited by the Sunni
minority that ruled Iraq under Saddam Hussein,
turnout matched or exceeded the national average,
according to Hamdiya al-Husseini of Iraq's
Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC).
That might reduce grounds for Sunnis to complain
about their stake in Iraq's nascent democracy seven
years after the U.S.-led invasion deprived them of a
privileged position under Saddam.
Electoral authorities cautioned politicians not to
make premature statements about their performance.
Even so, many did.
"The State of Law Coalition list is leading among
other lists in Baghdad and other southern
provinces," said Ali al-Dabbagh, government
spokesman and State of Law candidate.
Lawmaker Haider al-Ebadi, a State of Law candidate
and member of Maliki's Dawa party, said initial
results suggested the coalition was ahead in 10
provinces.
"But the special voting and voters abroad, this has
not been concluded yet and could alter the outcome,"
he said.
SECULAR CHALLENGER
Maliki's hopes for re-election faced a strong
challenge from ex-premier Allawi's non-religious
Iraqiya slate, which garnered broad support of
Sunnis suspicious of the Shi'ite-led government and
what they view as its subservience to neighbouring
Iran.
Sunnis felt under-represented after the 2005
election for a full-term parliament, which sealed
the grip on power of majority Shi'ites and minority
Kurds oppressed by Saddam.
Many Sunnis felt targeted when a Shi'ite-led panel
vetoed around 500 candidates, including a top Sunni
politician, before the vote, for alleged links to
Saddam's outlawed Baath party.
Turnout in the Sunni province of Anbar was 61
percent this time, IHEC said, while in Saddam's home
province of Salahuddin 73 percent turned out to
vote. That compared to 57 percent in the Shi'ite oil
hub of Basra and 53 percent in Baghdad.
Thaer al-Naqeeb, an Iraqiya candidate and close aide
to Allawi, said results were not clear so far but
initial figures put Iraqiya ahead in the northern
and western provinces. Iraqiya got between 70-90
percent of votes in those provinces, he said.
In one key constituency, Allawi's list did not get
as many votes as some had predicted. There were
272,016 expatriate voters, IHEC said, compared to
expectations of more than one million. Most Iraqis
abroad are believed to be Sunnis.
Maliki also faces stiff competition from his former
Shi'ite Islamist allies grouped in the Iraqi
National Alliance (INA).
The powerful Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (ISCI),
which is part of that bloc, said the vote appeared
evenly split between Maliki and INA in early
counting. Iraqiya was third, ISCI said.
In Iraqi Kurdistan,www.ekurd.neta
new party was challenging President Jalal Talabani's
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), one of two
groups that have dominated Kurdish politics for
decades.
A robust showing by the reformist Goran list could
weaken the hand of the PUK and Massoud Barzani's
Kurdistan Democratic Party in any coalition talks in
Baghdad. The relative cohesion of the Kurds has
allowed them to play kingmaker in the past.
"It was a generally fair election," said a source in
Barzani's office, adding that he did not believe
Goran had done as well as some people had expected.
Whoever ends up with the biggest share of
parliament's 325 seats, negotiations to form a new
government are likely to take weeks if not months.
The ensuing political vacuum will test Iraq's
fragile democracy as the United States halves its
troop presence to 50,000, ending combat operations
by August 31, and withdraws completely by the end of
2011.
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
Reuters
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