|
Allawi leads Maliki for first time in Iraq
count
17.3.2010 |
|
|
|
Secular Candidate Takes Lead in Iraqi Election
March
17, 2010
BAGHDAD, —
Former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi edged past Iraqi
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Tuesday in results
from Iraq's fragmented March 7 vote that may lead to
months of political bargaining and create a risky
power vacuum.
The new initial results, reversing the lead that
Maliki had taken in earlier counts over the past
week, came on a day when twin bomb attacks in the
town of Mussayab, 60 km (40 miles) south of the
capital, killed eight people.
The bombs went off within minutes of one another
after attackers attached two bombs to passengers
cars, underscoring Iraq's vulnerability as it
confronts the possibility of major political change
and U.S. troops prepare to withdraw.
|
Former Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi |
The blasts, a day after
seven people were killed by a car bomb in western
Anbar province, raised doubts about how Iraq's
fragile security will stand up during what likely
will be long, divisive talks among leading
politicians to form a government.
Allawi's narrow lead in the national vote count over
Maliki's mainly Shi'ite State of Law bloc, which is
ahead in seven of 18 provinces but has barely made a
dent in Sunni areas, underlines Iraq's polarization
after years of sectarian war.
Allawi, a secular Shi'ite whose cross-sectarian,
secularist Iraqiya list is now ahead in five
provinces, has galvanized support among minority
Sunnis eager to reclaim the influence they lost when
Saddam Hussein's long rule ended in 2003.
With about 80 percent of an estimated 12 million
votes counted, only about 9,000 votes separate
Maliki's and Allawi's coalitions. Definitive final
results could take weeks.
One or the other bloc is likely to ally with the
Iraqi National Alliance (INA), a largely Shi'ite
bloc made up of Maliki's estranged allies, running
third, or with a partnership of Kurdish parties
which dominated Iraq's Kurdish north.
CONFIDENT
While Maliki, who has built his reputation on
pulling Iraq back from the brink of civil war, has
wide support, allies of Allawi, an urbane physician
and critic of the Shi'ite religious parties
dominating Iraq since 2003, were feeling confident.
Thaer al-Naqeeb, a close aide to Allawi, said he
expected the final results would show Allawi ahead
of Maliki, even though the prime minister is now
ahead in Baghdad, the biggest electoral prize with
68 seats in Iraq's 325-member parliament.
"The results are really close and positive (for us)
... How can Maliki beat us?" he asked.
Joost Hiltermann, an analyst with the International
Crisis Group, suggested that defeat may not be
accepted gracefully in a post-election climate
already marked by allegations of fraud.
"This is not over till it's over, and I'm not just
talking about the final tally but the attempts by
the loser, whoever it may be, to leapfrog over the
winner after the count," he said.
How Iraq forms a government agreeable to mutually
suspicious rivals like Maliki and Allawi, plus all
the country's other rival factions, will be key to
maintaining security as Washington looks toward an
end-2011 deadline for withdrawal.
An alliance of the country's two main Kurdish
parties has the lead in three Kurdish provinces in
northern Iraq. It trails close behind Allawi's bloc
in Kirkuk,www.ekurd.netthe
oil-producing province at the heart of a bitter
struggle between Arabs and Kurds.
Allawi now leads the Kurd bloc there by a handful of
votes.
Toby Dodge, an Iraq expert at the University of
London, said influence from Iraq's fellow Shi'ite-majority
neighbor Iran could be instrumental in producing
another government alliance between Maliki, the INA
and the Kurds.
"To some extent this would be a reconstitution of
the coalition that governed Iraq so ineptly from
2006 to 2010," he said.
The Iranian government, eager to see someone
representing Shi'ite interests leading Iraq, praised
the elections.
"All international supervision has confirmed the
soundness of the Iraqi elections. This is a success
and we congratulate Iraqis," Foreign Ministry
spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said.
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
Reuters
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
®
