Iraq’s long-oppressed Shi’ites were basking on Monday in their electoral triumph but pledged to reach out to rival Sunnis whose political isolation could further threaten the country’s stability.
The Kurds were also celebrating their strong performance in the landmark January 30 election and pressed for one of the state’s top jobs and their claim to the disputed oil centre of Kirkuk.
The clergy-backed Shi’ite list won almost half the 8,5-million votes cast and is poised to take more than half the seats in the National Assembly, putting Shi’ites in power in an Arab state for the first time in more than 1 000 years.
”It’s the choice of the people,” said one jubilant Shi’ite voter, Ahmed Shebab Mahmud.
But there are fears the marginalisation of the former Sunni elite could further fuel an insurgency that has killed thousands and crippled the economy since the March 2003 United States-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
US President George Bush praised the 8,5-million Iraqis who ”defied terrorists and went to the polls” while congratulations poured in from around the world for the first free elections in half a century.
Although the 48% of votes won by the main Shi’ite list backed by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani was less than it had hoped for, the coalition will clinch an absolute majority in the 275-seat Parliament.
The Kurds gained about 25% of the vote, while the list put together by Iyad Allawi, the interim Prime Minister since the US occupiers handed power to Iraqis in June, managed only a distant third with less than 14%.
”Iraq is bleeding and we need everybody at this juncture to work for solidarity and unity,” said Finance Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi, a leading member of the winning Shi’ite list who is also seen as a likely prime minister.
”We have stated previously and we repeat that we will follow the principle of dialogue and we will work with all those who were excluded or excluded themselves from these elections,” he added.
Seats
There was no official announcement on the share-out of seats, but a complex elimination mechanism in the counting system that favours large parties means the Shi’ite United Iraqi Alliance should obtain 140 seats.
A two-thirds majority is needed in the National Assembly to agree on presidential posts and to pass some crucial laws, but if it holds together, the Shi’ite bloc could set the pace without having to seek alliances systematically.
Some observers have warned that a united Shi’ite bloc with an absolute majority could seek to impose a heavy Islamic imprint on the permanent Constitution, which the Assembly has to draft by August 15.
The results will only become definitive on Wednesday, to allow for challenges, according to electoral commission member Farid Ayar, who hailed the vote as ”the birth of a new Iraq”.
The alliance of the two historical Kurdish heavyweights secured a stunning victory thanks to high turnout rates in the north, making Kurds likely political kingmakers after decades of struggle against Sunni regimes.
With more than a quarter of the vote and a predicted 75 seats in Parliament as well as an absolute majority in the provincial council of oil-rich Kirkuk, Kurds celebrated by shooting into the air and driving with Kurdistani flags flying from windows.
Kurdish leaders said they will push for federalism to protect their autonomy, but also moved to allay fears of rival ethnic groups in the north that they will seek to break away.
The Sunnis, out of power for the first time in the history of modern Iraq, will be left with scraps in the next executive.
In the restive Sunni province of Al-Anbar, turnout was only 2%.
As a result, Sunnis will be almost absent from Parliament, with the party of President Ghazi al-Yawar mustering a paltry five seats and elder statesman Adnan Pachachi failing to win a single one.
Pachachi said he was disappointed, saying the low Sunni turnout left the community ”disenfranchised”.
Results welcomed
Western powers welcomed the results.
”The world saw long lines of Iraqi men and women voting in a free and fair election for the first time in their lives,” Bush said. ”The US and our coalition partners can all take pride in our role in making that great day possible.”
Britain’s Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the ”Iraqi people have taken another important step on the way to a secure and democratic future”.
”The European Commission looks to those who have been elected to assume the responsibility of governing Iraq in the name of the whole Iraqi people,” EU external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said.
Many fear that Sunni marginalisation could also further fuel the Sunni-led insurgency that has already killed thousands over the past two years.
Fifteen people were killed over the past 24 hours in various attacks across Iraq.
Among the deaths was an Iraqi soldier killed in a gunfight north of Baghdad, security sources said on Monday.
Two police officers were shot dead by gunmen in the heart of the northern city of Mosul and a contractor working for the US military was also gunned down, to the south of the city. — Sapa-AFP