Iraq’s Shia Muslims sealed their historic political ascendancy on Sunday night when they won just under half of the votes in the country’s landmark multiparty elections, giving the long-oppressed majority its first taste of power in decades.
Final results from the January 30 ballot released on Sunday showed the Shias won more than four million votes, or about 48% of those cast.
Though they fell short of achieving a parliamentary majority, and will have to bring minorities into any new government, a coalition backed by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s leading cleric, will fill almost half the 275-seat national assembly and almost certainly claim the premiership and leading Cabinet posts.
The Iraqi Electoral Commission said just over 8,5-million of the 14-million registered to vote did so, a turnout of 58%.
A Kurdish alliance came second with 2,2-million votes, or 26%, and a ticket headed by the outgoing prime minister, Ayad Allawi, came third with 1,2-million, or 14%.
But in stark contrast to hefty ballot boxes from the Kurdish north and Shia south, those from Arab Sunni areas were light and largely empty, risking the marginalisation of the community. Only 13 893 people — 2% of eligible voters — turned out in Anbar province, which includes the restive towns of Fallujah and Ramadi.
A minority comprising a fifth of the population, Sunnis lost their status as Iraq’s ruling class when a United States-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein’s Ba’athist regime in April 2003, fuelling resentment tapped by the former Ba’athists and Islamist radicals leading the insurgency.
Victorious Shias, however, promised to share power with ethnic and religious minorities.
”We have a responsibility now to work together for the sake of the people. They have made this magnificent gesture and we should all take it seriously and make it work,” said Ibrahim al-Jaafari, an outgoing vice president and candidate for prime minister.
Mouwafak al-Rubaie, another leading Shia, echoed the mood of conciliation. ”Iraq and its new government can’t be built by one faction or shade and it is not possible that only two or three sects participate in this government,” he told the al-Arabiya network.
Western governments welcomed the result. ”The Iraqi people have taken another important step on the way to a secure and democratic future,” said Britain’s Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw.
United States President George Bush congratulated the winners and voters. ”I congratulate the Iraqi people for defying terrorist threats and setting their country on the path of democracy and freedom,” he said in a statement.
The winners’ rhetoric of inclusion will be tested in horsetrading for the top jobs. The assembly is expected to meet by the end of the month to choose a president and two deputies, who in turn will choose a prime minister and Cabinet whose appointment must be approved by a majority in the assembly.
The assembly must also draw up a draft Constitution by August, which is to be presented to Iraqis in a referendum by October, leading to a general election in December.
Ordinary Iraqis are hoping the government will restore electricity, shorten fuel queues and quell violence. A wave of bombings and shootings has claimed more than 100 lives since the polls.
On Sunday, an Iraqi translator for Italian troops and his son were shot dead in the southern city of Nassiriya, a spokesperson for Italy’s military said. Hassan Khiwaet Ghali (51) and his 20-year-old son Salah were killed near their home. An Iraqi army officer was assassinated, and three US troops died when an accident tipped their vehicle into a canal.
Al-Arabiya television reported that kidnappers had abducted the head of an Iraqi Christian party and were demanding the withdrawal of US troops.
One question was to what extent Sunnis would enter the political process since most parties boycotted the election and the few which participated fared disastrously.
President Ghazi al-Yawer’s party won only about 150 000 votes, less than 2%. A list headed by Sunni elder statesman Adnan Pachachi took only 12 000 votes, just 0,1%.
Privately, some mainstream Sunni leaders regret the boycott and hope to contribute to the draft Constitution and prepare for the election in December.
But they face a huge task in connecting ordinary Sunnis to the new dispensation.
The other unknown is how far and how fast Kurds will seek autonomy within a federal state which many Shias and Sunnis fear will be a precursor to a push for independence.
Its electoral organisation and unity rewarded with over a quarter of the vote, the Kurdish alliance is touting its candidate Jalal Talabani to be president or prime minister.
Kurds in Kirkuk erupted in celebrations after results showed them well ahead in the provincial vote. – Guardian Unlimited Â