Sunni Arabs complain of Iraq election fraud

updated 8:15 p.m. ET Dec. 20, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Sunni Arabs and a key secular party charged Tuesday that parliamentary elections were tainted by fraud and demanded an inquiry into preliminary results showing the governing Shiite religious bloc with a larger-than-expected lead.

With politicians barely containing their hostility toward each other, the bitter climate raised questions about U.S. hopes that the Dec. 15 vote will lead to a more inclusive government involving Sunni Arabs, the minority group that formed the core of Saddam Hussein’s government and is now the backbone of the insurgency.

The complaints focused mainly on Baghdad, Iraq’s largest electoral district and one that has large numbers of Sunnis and Shiites. With 89 percent of ballot boxes counted, the Shiite bloc United Iraqi Alliance was leading in the province with about 59 percent of the vote, while the Sunni Arab alliance, the Iraqi Accordance Front, trailed with 19 percent.

Adnan al-Dulaimi, head of the Sunni Arab alliance the Iraqi Accordance Front, listed several complaints, including voting centers failing to open, shortages in election materials and reports of multiple voting.

“There are many violations, and there is forgery,” al-Dulaimi told The Associated Press, saying his group would demand a new vote in Baghdad if the problems are not addressed.

Overall vote won't change, official says
Electoral commission official Farid Ayar said he has received more than 1,000 formal complaints, 20 of which were serious, or “red.” He said he did not expect the complaints would change the overall result, which is to be announced in January.

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said, “Final results will not be announced until those red complaints have been looked at.”

But a secular coalition charged that the election commission was a tool of the religious Shiite-dominated government.

“The elections commission is not independent. It is influenced by political parties and by the government,” said Ibrahim al-Janabi, an official with Iraqi National List, which is headed by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.

By the latest count, the Iraq National List received 14 percent of the votes in Baghdad province, a distant third. Adel al-Lami, the general director of Iraq’s electoral commission, told The Associated Press that officials did not announce the results of the remaining 11 percent because of complaints of irregularities.

The Iraqi Accordance Front, a coalition of three Sunni groups, rejected the results, warning of “grave repercussions on security and political stability” if the mistakes were not corrected. Al-Dulaimi said that if changes weren’t made Sunni Arabs “will resort to other measures” he did not specify.

A senior member of the United Iraqi Alliance, Jawad al-Maliki, retorted that the Sunni minority should accept the will of the majority.

“We cannot ignore the facts on the ground,” al-Maliki said. “Democracy means accepting the opinion of the majority. They should accept the other and the outcome of the ballot boxes. The Sunnis need to take this into consideration.”

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