Shiite Bloc Wins Majority In Iraq
Iraq's electoral commission certified the results of the country's Jan. 30 elections Thursday and allocated 140 seats to the clergy-backed United Iraqi Alliance, giving them a majority in the new parliament.
The allocation sets the stage for the first meeting of the new National Assembly, which will be in power for 10 months and draft a new constitution. The first order of business will be to elect a president and two vice presidents to largely ceremonial positions.
The commission first announced results from the ballot on Sunday. The clergy-backed United Iraqi Alliance got 48 percent of the vote for the National Assembly, the Kurdish alliance took 26 percent and interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite supported by Washington, won 14 percent.
A deadline to file complaints expired Wednesday.
Also on Thursday, an insurgent bomb attack on a convoy of U.S. troops and Iraqi National Guardsmen wounded seven Iraqis. The attack on the convoy occurred in Hawija, about 150 miles north of Baghdad, on the main road running north to Kirkuk, said Maj. Gen. Anwar Mohammad Amin. No Americans were wounded, he said.
In other developments:
Now that the results are certified, the present government must set a timetable for installing the new government. There have been no indications on how long the process, which is dependent on back-room dealmaking among the parties, might take.
The certification comes as top Shiite politicians prepare to choose a nominee for prime minister. A secret ballot is expected to take place Friday to decide a two-man race between Ibrahim al-Jaafari and Ahmad Chalabi.
The contrast between the two candidates is stark and reveals a division within the clergy-endorsed alliance, made up of 10 major political parties and various allied smaller groups.
Al-Jaafari, 58, is the leader of the religious Dawa Party, one of Iraq's oldest parties, known for its popularity and close ties to Iran. Although al-Jaafari is a moderate, his party's platform is conservative.
Chalabi, 58, who left Iraq as a teen, leads the Iraqi National Congress and had close ties to the Pentagon before falling out of favor last year after claims he passed intelligence information to Iran.
A secular Shiite, Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress is an umbrella for groups that included Iraqi exiles, Kurds and Shiites. Much of the supposed intelligence his group supplied on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction programs failed to pan out.
Al-Jaafari was considered the leading contender Wednesday, though Chalabi's aides said their man had enough votes to win.
A close aide to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the spiritual leader of Iraq's Shiite Muslims, said the alliance's leaders will visit the grand ayatollah's office in Najaf to get his blessing for their choice. In the event they can't agree, al-Sistani will make the final decision, the aide said.
Kurdish parties have apparently agreed to support the alliance's candidate for prime minister in return for the largely ceremonial presidency.
Sunni Arabs, favored under Saddam Hussein's rule, largely stayed away from the polls. But the Shiites must move cautiously if they want to form an inclusive government.
The government that takes power will face the challenge of quelling a violent insurgency, largely being waged by Sunni extremists.