Jan. 31, 2005
Al Q's 'Holy War' In Iraq Not Over
Allawi Calls For Unity As Insurgents Vow More Violence After Iraq Vote
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Play CBS Video Video Counting Ballots, Bombings One day after the historic election in Iraq, Prime Minister Ayad Allawi called for people to rally around democracy. But meanwhile, as Dan Rather reports, insurgent strikes against troops continued.
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Video Life In Iraq, The Democracy Iraqi's determination to vote surprised the world. But much of Iraq remains a battlefield, lacking water, electricity and roadways. Elizabeth Palmer looks at Iraq before and after the election.
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Video Mosul Defies Chaos In one of the most dangerous cities in Iraq, the security force has been decimated. Now, after the election, it is time to rebuild. Kimberly Dozier talks to officials there.
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Iraqi Army soldiers celebrate in the streets of Najaf, Iraq, Monday, Jan. 31, 2005, a day after Iraq voted in their country's first free election in a half-century. (AP)
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A 2003 picture of Camp Bucca, where U.S. guards shot four prisoners during a riot Monday. (AP)
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Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi shows off the ink-stained index finger which marks him as an Iraqi who has voted. (AP)
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Interactive Iraq Votes Election results, facts on candidates and the polling, photos and more.
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In The Spotlight Voting In Iraq Iraqis prepare to vote on a constitution
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Interactive American Heroes Profiles of U.S. soldiers who've died in Iraq, a look at the war's toll and pictures of mourning.
CBS News Anchor Dan Rather reports from Iraq that as many as three dozen suicide bombers struck during the Sunday elections, including one young man who allegedly had Downs Syndrome. And insurgents continued to strike Monday, killing three U.S. Marines in a roadside bombing south of Baghdad. Guerrillas also issued a video claiming to have shot down a British C-130 transport plane that crashed Sunday north of Baghdad. Ten military personnel were missing and presumed dead — Britain's biggest single loss of life in the Iraq conflict.
Meanwhile, the first day of ballot counting wrapped up at the polls, and partial results could be released as early as Tuesday. The latest estimates indicated 57 percent of elegible voters turned up to vote, reports Rather. Final results from the hand counting of ballots could take up to 10 days, election officials said.
U.S. soldiers stood guard and election workers cheered as trucks loaded with the first batch of ballots from the provinces rolled into Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone for the next phase of the count.
Despite the lack of official totals from Sunday's election, officials in the main Shiite clergy-endorsed coalition claimed a large victory, which could raise tensions with Iraq's Sunni Muslims, who are thought to have largely sat out the vote.
In other developments:
In his first public statement since the elections, Allawi called on Iraqis to join together to build a society shattered by decades of war, Saddam Hussein's tyranny, economic sanctions, military occupation and insurgency.
"The terrorists now know that they cannot win," Allawi said. "We are entering a new era of our history and all Iraqis — whether they voted or not — should stand side by side to build their future."
Local polling stations worked through the night to count ballots by oil lamp at one Najaf site after power went off. By Monday afternoon, the count at all 5,200 stations nationwide was completed, and local centers were forwarding tally sheets and ballots to Baghdad, where vote totals will be compiled in computers and then announced, election officials said.
With turnout figures expected to take some time, concern was high that Sunnis — who make up the backbone of the insurgency — largely stayed out of the vote and may be alienated from the government that emerges.
The group al Qaeda in Iraq, led by Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, vowed to "continue the jihad (holy war) until the banner of (Islamic) unity flutters over Iraq."
"These elections and their results ... will increase our strength and intention to getting rid of injustice," the group said in a Web statement.
Allawi promised to work to ensure that "the voice of all Iraqis is present in the coming government."
The top candidate in the main Shiite coalition made a similar pledge. "We are still insisting to form a partnership government including all segments of the Iraqi people," Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim of the United Iraqi Alliance told Al-Arabiya television.
Although no partial results have been released, political parties were allowed to observe the counting at local stations. That led members of the Alliance, which was endorsed by Shiite Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, to say they expect to win about 45 percent of the 275 Assembly seats up for grabs in the election.
Allawi's ticket was running second among the 111 candidate lists, and a Kurdish faction was third, those officials said.
The al-Sistani-endorsed list swept some southern cities, winning 90 percent of votes in Najaf and 80 percent in Basra, said local officials of the parties within the alliance. The claims could not be confirmed, but the Alliance had been expected to run strong in the southern Shiite heartland.
Rather reports that parties backed by the majority Shi'ites will likely control the new National Assembly, which gives them the duty of writing a permanent constitution.
Iraqis also selected provincial councils in the 18 provinces, and voters in the Kurdish-run north elected a new parliament.
A stable and legitimate Iraqi government could more effectively confront the insurgency and hasten the day when 150,000 American troops could go home.
But the prospect of a Shiite-dominated government raises concern among disaffected members of the Sunni minority, many of whom stayed away from the polls. Sunni Arabs number about 20 percent of the population but include many of the country's educational and technical elite.
Election officials claimed that turnout in heavily Sunni areas was better than some had expected, but they cited no numbers.
However, a U.S. diplomat, speaking to reporters in Baghdad on condition of anonymity, said "anecdotal evidence" indicated Sunni participation was "considerably lower" than that of other groups.
And a leading Sunni faction, the Iraqi Islamic Party, said the vote was not inclusive "because an important segment of the Sunni Muslim community didn't take part."
In Saddam's hometown, the predominantly Sunni city of Tikrit, history teacher Qais Youssif, 48, said no member of his family had voted because the elections "were held in the way that America and the occupation forces wanted."
"They want to marginalize the role of the Sunnis," he said. "They and the media talk about the Sunnis as a minority. I do not think they are a minority."
If approved, elections for a new government will be held Dec. 15, 2005.
©MMV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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